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A STUDY 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 



BY 



LEWIS G. JANES 



H&vra doKi/id^ere • rb KaTubv mTexere 




CHICAGO \!^>o 

CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY 
175 Dearborn Street 

1887 
K 



A 



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Copyright, 1884, 
By Lewis G. Janbs. 



LC Control Number 

111111 




tmp96 027591 



TO 

MY PUPILS AND ASSOCIATES IN THE 

ADULT CLASSES 

CONNECTED WITH THE 

SECOND UNITARIAN CHURCH, 
Brooklyn, N.Y., 

In remembrance of 

the pleasant and fruitful hours which we have 
spent together in the search for that 

IDEAL TRUTH 

which is dearer to us than any faulty expression in 
the symbols of an imperfect language, 

I DEDICATE 

this little book. 

Jan. 19, 1886. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface 5 

Preface to Second Edition 7 

Introduction 9 

I. Palestine in the Roman Period 13 
II. Society and Religion in the Ro- 
man Empire 39 

III. Sources of Information .... 69 

IV. Theological Aspects of the Re- 

ligion of Jesus ...... 98 

V. Social Aspects of the Religion 

of Jesus 118 

VI. Myth and Miracle in the Gos- 
pel Stories 144 

VII. The Christianity of Paul . . . 174 
VIII. The Church in the Apostolic 

Age 204 

IX. The Martyr Period 235 

X. Christianity the State Religion 266 

Bibliography 304 

Index 307 



PREFACE, 



1 take great pleasure in recommending Dr. 
Janes's Primitive Christianity to the community at 
large. One of the most satisfactory aspects of 
my Brooklyn pastorate has been the work of Dr. 
Janes in connection with an adult class on Sun- 
days, and the evening class to which he refers in 
his introduction. In both of these connections, he 
has shown a remarkable faculty for laborious 
study and intelligent and persuasive exposition. 
The chapters herewith presented were originally 
prepared for lectures to the evening class. They 
proved themselves entirely equal to the purpose 
for which they were designed, conveying definite 
information and inciting vigorous debate. The 
origin of these lectures, in the exigencies of class 
instruction, suggests the hope that they will be 
found widely useful in churches and elsewhere for 
the purposes of such instruction. Their topical 
arrangement will be a great advantage to the 
class and teacher using them. 

At the same time, they are deserving of a more 
general currency. They are a wonderfully clear 



PREFACE 

and strong expression of the best results of the 
higher criticism of the New Testament, and the 
origins of Christianity. They are no mere com- 
pilation, but the outcome of an independent 
mind working freely upon a great mass of mate- 
rials, to which few, except the professional scholar, 
can give the attention they deserve. If I am not 
mistaken, Dr. Janes has brought to these mate- 
rials a singularly just and patient mind, which has 
saved him from 'the falsehood of extremes/ and 
enabled him 'to see things as they are.' It is, 
for me, an admirable feature of his book that it 
does not apprehend the life of Jesus and the early 
Christians as any merely historical problem, but 
demands at every step to know what there is here 
to help us in the storm and stress of our own 
time's Philosophy, and Ethics, and Sociology, and 
Religion. If the various questions which are now 
so serious and engrossing can be met in such a 
spirit as my friend has shown within the compass 
of his little book, that 

' bridal-dawn of thunder-peals, 
Which all the past of time reveals, 
"Wherever Thought has wedded Fact,' 

will not be long delayed, nor anything but wel- 
come when it comes. 

John W. Chadwick. 

Bbooklyn, N.Y., Dec. 26, 1885. 



PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 



In issuing a new edition of these lectures, obe- 
dient to the continued demand of the public, the 
author desires to express his grateful acknowledg- 
ments for the cordial and appreciative greeting 
which they have received from the liberal and 
secular press, for the kind favors of commenda- 
tion and friendly criticism from private individu- 
als, and for the fair and candid treatment which 
has generally been bestowed upon his book by 
reviewers who differ widely from his theological 
point of view. 

A careful reconsideration, in the light of the 
published criticisms, suggests but little modifica- 
tion of the judgments and conclusions herein 
recorded. Two or three friendly critics have 
maintained that too great credence has been 
allowed to the non-miraculous part of Philostra- 
tus* Life of Apollonius of Tyana, in the chapter 
on "Myth and Miracle" (pp. 147-159). While 
acknowledging the weight of some of these dis- 
senting arguments, and admitting that the esti- 
mation of the degree of historical verity justly 
assignable to the work of Philostratus is a ques- 
tion for the nicest critical judgment, and one, 
moreover, on which the ablest scholars are not iu 
full accord, — the author is impelled to adhere in 



8 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 

the main to the conclusions previously arrived at, 
after a careful study of both sides of this mooted 
question. In this decision, he is sustained by the 
judgments of such unbiassed modern historians 
as Hitter — who sees no reason to doubt the hon- 
esty either of Philostratus or of Damis, the contem- 
porary disciple of Apollonius — and Lecky, who in 
several instances refers to the narrative of Philos- 
tratus without discrediting its non-miraculous por- 
tions, as well as by the general consensus of those 
early Christian and Pagan writers who make 
mention of Apollonius. It must be admitted, 
however, that the work of Philostratus contains 
some glaring historical inaccuracies ; but, in our 
judgment, these do not justify us in relegating it 
in its entirety to the domain of pure fiction, any 
more than similar considerations justify a like 
treatment of the Christian Gospels. This entire 
question, however, is incidental and illustrative 
merely, and has little bearing upon the main pur- 
pose and argument of the book. 

A recent " Critico-Historical Sketch of the Dru- 
ids," from the able pen of William Emmette Cole- 
man, appears, justly, to discredit much that has 
been generally accepted as truth concerning them 
on the authority of Caesar, Pliny, and other classi- 
cal writers. The account of the Druids herein 
contained (pp. 62, 63) follows, temperately, the 
generally received authorities, but perhaps requires 
some further modification. 

L. G. J. 
Bbooklyw, N.Y., Dec. T, 1886. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The questions involved in the study of the ori- 
gins of Christianity and the earliest phases of its 
development are ordinarily supposed to lie within 
the exclusive province of the professional theolo- 
gian. It is freely intimated that a layman has no 
business to meddle with them. The theologian, 
having thus monopolized the treatment of these 
important subjects, is generally careful to avoid 
any such discussion of them as may tend to throw 
doubt upon the currently accepted doctrines of the 
divine origin and infallible truth of the Christian 
system. 

When, by chance, a Christian minister, having a 
mind unwarped by theological bias and a sub- 
limer confidence in the sacredness of truth and the 
method of free discussion than, unhappily, is usual, 
dares to transgress the bounds of custom, and 
gives to the public the plain facts of history and 
the results of the critical judgment of the best 
and most reverent scholars upon these topics, he 
does but demonstrate by his experience that intel- 
lectual liberty is rarely possible within sectarian 
boundaries, even though the body with which he 
communes may be the most cultured and liberal of 



10 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

all the sects, — may assume indeed to be no sect, 
but the church universal. 

As far as the enlightenment of the public is in- 
volved in the event, it does not seem to matter 
much whether the voice of truth is silenced by the 
rack and thumb-screw, as of yore, or by the 
friendly request of an assistant bishop, as at the 
present day. Silenced it is for the moment, and 
that effectually ; while in the ears of the eagerly 
waiting people rings the old-time query, never 
more forceful or pertinent than to-day, Why seek 
ye not, even of yourselves, what is true ? 

In this spirit of single-minded search for the 
truth, it is proposed to investigate the origins of 
Christianity, the character and validity of the New 
Testament literature, and the different phases of 
custom and belief which existed in the earliest 
Christian communities. The writer perhaps owes 
it to his readers to inform them that his work was 
commenced and prosecuted with no original pur- 
pose or expectation of publication, and that it em- 
bodies the results of some years of careful study 
in connection with his duties as teacher of an ad- 
vanced class of Sunday-school pupils. The papers 
herein collected were originally prepared and de- 
livered as a course of lectures before an Associa- 
tion* engaged in the systematic study of the 
world's great religions. Their publication is due 
solely to the cordial appreciation and earnestly ex- 
pressed desire of those who listened to their deliv- 
ery. Their original form will not be essentially 

•The Association for Moral and Spiritual Education, 
Brooklyn, N.Y. 



INTRODUCTION 11 

modified ; but sub-titles and explanatory notes will 
be inserted for the convenience of the general 
reader, and a carefully prepared topical index will, 
it is believed, add to the usefulness of the lectures. 

It is hoped that the reader will unite with us in 
the attempt to hold our educational and inherited 
prejudices and prepossessions, as far as possible, in 
abeyance, bearing in mind that maxim of Confu- 
cius which affirms that "the superior man, in the 
world, does not set himself either for anything or 
against anything: what is right he will follow." 
The sense of this maxim is rendered more tersely, 
if less unequivocally, by Paul, in the text which 
may be rendered : "Test all things thoroughly, and 
hold fast to that which is morally beautiful." 

Commencing our investigation with an examina- 
tion of the local environment of the earliest phase 
of Christianity, involved in the political, social, 
and religious condition of Palestine in the Roman 
period, we will next consider the state of society 
and religion in the Roman Empire outside of 
Palestine, — that fruitful ground into which the 
earliest seeds of Christian thought and life were 
transplanted. Thereafter, we will investigate the 
sources of our information concerning the life and 
teachings of Jesus, and the different stages of the 
evolution of the new religion, up to the time of its 
secular triumph. 

The literature bearing upon these topics is al- 
ready enormous, and is expanding with every 
added year. The work involved in the prepara- 
tion of these lectures has therefore not been in- 
considerable : it is much greater, indeed, than the 



12 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

somewhat meagre results may appear to indicate. 
The greatest care has been taken to insure accu- 
racy in regard to all statements of fact, reliance 
having been placed only on authorities of recog- 
nized weight and impartiality. For the conclu- 
sions and deductions from ascertained historical 
facts, herein set forth, no one is responsible save 
the writer, who commits them to the candid judg- 
ment of the unbiassed reader, trusting that they 
may serve a good, if humble, purpose toward the 
discovery of truth and the consequent enfranchise- 
ment of mankind from superstition and theological 
bondage. 



L 

PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD. 

A trite subject, but one of supreme interest and 
importance, is that to which we are to devote our 
attention, — the Origin and Growth of Christianity. 
Of making books upon this topic there has been 
no end. It can hardly be anticipated that the 
present effort will add anything to the information 
of those unprejudiced investigators whose inclina- 
tion and leisure have permitted them to make 
acquaintance with the current literature bearing 
upon this question in all its different relations. 
These, however, are of necessity the few: the 
present lectures are intended for others, — for those 
whom lack of time has prevented from keeping 
pace with the growth of a literature whose bulk is 
already portentous. 

Treating the topics involved in this study from 
the stand-point of sympathetic rationalism, and, in 
accordance with the latest results of critical and 
exegetical research, regarding Christianity as a 
product of natural evolution from the existing 
environment, with its inheritance of past influences 
and traditions, the attempt will be made to group 
together and present as clearly and consistently as 
possible the salient points in each division of the 



14 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHKISTIANITY 

subject in such a brief and succinct form that the 
reader may readily retain them in his memory, 
and find the theme, notwithstanding its familiarity, 
not devoid of interest or unworthy of his serious 
attention. 

From the Captivity to the Reman Period. 4 

Palestine, in the generations immediately pre- 
ceding the birth of Jesus, — a land less in extent 
than the State of New Hampshire, — from its 
location, the character of its people, and the 
peculiarities of their national religion, became the 
seat of a remarkable series of political and social 
events. The period of the ancient Hebraism, 
interrupted in its development by the dispersion 
of the Northern tribes and the Babylonian cap- 
tivity of the Southern tribes, had long since 
passed. Persia and Chaldea had bestowed upon 
Israel their gifts of the belief in a future life and 
a bodily resurrection. The Persian conception of 
the speedy destruction of the world by fire and 
the coming of a supernatural saviour had pene- 
trated the popular mind of Judaism, and modified 
its growing Messianic expectation. Satan, the 
old-time messenger and servant of Yahweh, had 
been endowed with the attributes of the Persian 
Ahriman, thus becoming the devil of the New 
Testament;! and the Chaldean superstition of 

*As it is our purpose hereafter to show the natural 
relation of the thought and life of Jesus to his social and 
intellectual environment, the material for this lecture has 
accordingly been drawn wholly from other than New 
Testament sources. 

tThe word "devil" is of Aryan origin, and is not found 
at all in the Old Testament. 



PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 15 

active demoniacal influences in human affairs, 
while it was rejected by the cultivated classes, 
had obtained a strong hold upon the credulity of 
the common people. 

The Persian protectorate, cut short by the con- 
quests of Alexander the Great, had been succeeded 
by the period of Greek domination, which in turn 
was interrupted by the successful issue of the 
Maccabaean struggle for freedom, followed by a 
century of independence and comparative pros- 
perity under the leadership of the descendants of 
Judas Maccabseus. Success, however, as often 
happens, brought corruption in its wake ; and the 
later Asmonean leaders were no longer animated 
by the resolute and incorruptible patriotism which 
spurred on their ancestors in the struggle for 
liberty. For many years, the country was disturbed 
by political dissensions, which finally wrought the 
overthrow of the independent Commonwealth. 

During all this period of strife, the more faith- 
ful adherents of Judaism, who held to the old 
theocratic conception of Israel, kept aloof from 
political strife, acknowledging Yahweh* as their 
only King and Ruler, and submitting to the 
authority of their superiors with silent but indig- 
nant protest. They left the petty dissensions of 
politics to the holders and seekers for office, who 
then, as now, were abundantly able to create a 
popular commotion with little assistance from the 
substantial and thinking classes of the people. 

*The name "Yahweh" will be used throughout these 
lectures instead of the familiar "Jehovah," as expressing 
more accurately the correct orthography and pronuncia- 
tion of the word. 



16 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY" 
Occasions of Roman Interference* 

About the year 69 B.C., a contest for the throne 
arose between two Asmonean pretenders, John 
Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. To decide the dispute, 
five years later, Scaulus, the Roman commander in 
Syria, was appealed to as an arbitrator. He 
assigned the throne to Aristobulus; but, in the 
following year, Pompey the Great, who was then 
at the head of affairs in Rome, annulled the act 
of Scaulus, transferred the regal office to Hyrcanus, 
and carried Aristobulus a captive to Rome, where, 
with his two daughters and his son Absalom, he 
graced the public triumph of the great Roman 
general, in the year 61 B.C. Four years later, 
Alexander, another son of Aristobulus, raised an 
insurrection in Palestine; and, in the year 54 
B.C., Crassus, then the Roman commander in 
Syria, taking advantage of the turbulence incited 
by these dissensions, took possession of the city 
of Jerusalem with his army, and shocked the 
entire religious community by committing the 
sacrilege of entering and plundering the temple. 

On the advent of Julius Caesar to supreme power, 
soon after this event, the fortunes of the Jews im- 
proved. He granted them many privileges, and 
relieved them from oppressive exactions, both in 
Rome, where a colony had existed since the time 
of Pompey, and in their native country. Aris- 
tobulus having been poisoned in Rome at the 
instigation of the party of Pompey, and his son 
Alexander having been beheaded, Caesar recog- 
nized Hyrcanus as High Priest and bestowed 
upon him the title of Prince, making him ruler 



PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 17 

of Palestine under the protection of the empire. 
A few years later, in 44 B.C., Herod, a prince of 
ldutnea or Edom, — the ancient hereditary rival 
and foe of Israel, — having married the daughter 
of Hyrcanus, was made tetrarch or governor of 
the country under his father-in-law. 

In the year 40 B.C., the Parthians, who had 
revolted and overthrown the Seleucidse, — the suc- 
cessors of Alexander the Great in the eastern 
provinces, — and had maintained thus far an effec- 
tive resistance against the Roman power, invaded 
Judea in alliance with Antigonus, a son of Aris- 
tobulus, and seated him upon the throne, carry- 
ing Hyrcanus to Persia, a prisoner. About the 
same time, the Roman Senate bestowed the king- 
dom upon Herod; and in the year 37 B.C., by 
the aid of Mark Antony, he stormed Jerusalem, 
captured the Holy City, expelled the Parthian 
invaders, and assumed the regal power. Thus, 
the patriotic Jews were at last subjected to the 
unexampled degradation and ignominy of behold- 
ing an accursed Edomite seated upon the throne 
of David. 

The Sects: the Pharisees and Sadducees. 

During this period of political dissension, the 
people were also rent by religious disputes between 
the rival sects, the Pharisees and Sadducees. The 
latter have sometimes erroneously been termed the 
Liberals of Judaism. They have been regarded as 
innovators upon the ancient customs and beliefs 
of their people. In their leading doctrines, on the 
contrary, they were preeminently the represen- 



18 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

tatives of the historic life and thought of Israel. 
They were the traditional custodians of the priestly 
office and emoluments ; constituting, as it were, an 
ancient order of hereditary nobility. 

The Asmonean rulers were originally in sym- 
pathy with the growing religious life of the people. 
They had attained their leadership through their 
pre-eminent merits and patriotism and with the 
popular support. But, not unnaturally, they were 
rejoiced when they began to find favor in the 
eyes of the ancient order of nobility. Mutual 
interests, apart from the life and thought of the 
people, cemented a cordial bond of sympathy 
between them. The Sadducees, holding them- 
selves superior to the masses by reason of their 
priestly functions, and puffed up by their alliance 
with the ruling house, grew more and more con- 
servative and narrow-minded. They sought to 
build up a hierarchy, to identify the entire range 
of religious duties with themselves and their 
official position. "Thus gradually," says Rabbi 
Geiger, a learned Jewish historian, "they changed 
their position. Instead of remaining the servants 
and ministers of religion, they made religion their 
servant." * 

The germs of a priestly order which formed 
the nucleus of this sect doubtless existed from a 
period long antedating the Babylonian captivity, 
but the sect as it appeared in the generations 
approachiDg the advent of Christianity was un- 
known to the Old Testament writings. Its origin 

^Judaism and its History, by Rabbi Geiger, which 
see for an admirable account of the Jewish sects. 



PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 19 

is obscure, and the meaning of its designation 
uncertain.* The sect of the Pharisees was un- 
known prior to the Maccabaean era, about 165 
B.C. In opposition to the priestly assumptions of 
the Sadducees, their opponents held that all the 
people should be regarded as sanctified in the 
service of Yahweh, all alike should be elevated 
to a condition of priestly holiness. Accordingly, 
they adopted strict rules of life, and insisted upon 
the formal observance of the rites of their relig- 
ion in order to approximate as nearly as possible 
to the special requirements of the priestly office. 

The Sadducees naturally magnified the temple 
worship, in which they were chiefly interested, and 
advocated strict conformity to the letter of the 
law, — the Thorah. The Pharisees were the leading 
supporters of the synagogue, an institution which 
arose during the Maccabaean period. They pro- 
claimed the superior sanctity of the oral law or 
tradition, which they attributed also to Moses, and 
advocated the right of all to be teachers and in- 
terpreters of the Thorah. Public prayers, daily 
ablutions, the consecration of the daily meals, 
were characteristic Pharisaic observances, the in- 
tent of which was to render every man, as nearly 
as possible, a priest. The scribes, who traced their 
origin to the time of Ezra,f were the copyists, 
readers, and commentators on the law in the syn- 
agogues, and were almost exclusively drawn from 
the sect of the Pharisees. They have sometimes 

* Some derive the word Sadducee from the name of one 
Zadok or Sadoq, a priest; others, from a word said to 
mean "the wise." 

t Circum 444 B.C. 



20 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

erroneously been regarded as constituting a sepa- 
rate sect by themselves. 

The Sadducees adopted the aristocratic designa- 
tions of "sons of the families of rank" and "sons 
of the high priests." The Pharisees were known 
as "separatists," "the learned," sometimes even 
"the people." Fraternizing with the main body of 
the populace, they accepted the popular doctrines 
of a future life, a bodily resurrection, and the com- 
ing of a personal Messiah. They declared that 
the exclusive priesthood would go down, the peo- 
ple would be emancipated, a descendant of the 
house of David would arise and reign over them, 
the servant and representative of Yahweh. Many 
of them anticipated the miraculous destruction of 
the existing world and society, and the establish- 
ment of a perpetual kingdom of God, a regen- 
erated world in the glories and joys of which all 
true believers would participate. The Sadducees, 
on the contrary, including, it is said, twenty thou- 
sand priests living in gluttony and luxury in 
Jerusalem alone, satisfied with their power and 
emoluments, contented with the present life, wish- 
ing for no change, repudiated the notions of a 
resurrection and a future existence as unwarranted 
by the teachings of the law, and rejected the doc- 
trine of the personal Messiahship. 

Jewish Mouasticism : the Essenes. 

About a century before the Christian era there 
arose in Palestine the small monastic sect of the 
Essenes.* During the reign of Herod, it is esti- 

•Our information concerning the Essenes is derived 
mainly from the works of Flavins Josephus. 



PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 21 

mated that they numbered about four thousand 
ascetics or "come-outers," withdrawn from among 
the Pharisees, and carrying to an extreme the 
Pharisaic doctrine of separatism. Members were 
received into this order by a solemn ceremonial of 
initiation, which included the rite of immersion. 
They took vows of chastity and seclusion, per- 
formed frequent ceremonial ablutions, refused to 
make sacrificial offerings at the temple, were pro- 
hibited from taking oaths, and held all their 
property in common. They had no fixed dwelling- 
places, but appointed some of their members or 
sympathizers in every considerable town or city 
to entertain them as they journeyed through in 
the course of their itinerant wanderings. They 
had certain conventual establishments in the 
wilderness near the Jordan, in the neighborhood 
of which they practised husbandry during the 
intervals of their journey ings and religious exer- 
cises. They were extreme formalists, placing 
greater importance even than the Pharisees upon 
the performance of all the minutiae of their relig- 
ious observances. They wore a peculiar white 
costume and a sacred girdle. They carefully pre- 
served and often repeated the names of the angels. 
They venerated as sacred the rays of light, and 
turned toward the sun to pray. 

The Essenes were as fatalistic in their beliefs as 
the Mohammedans. Unlike the Pharisees, they 
rejected the doctrine of a bodily resurrection, and 
believed in a spiritual immortality for both the 
righteous and evil-doers. They interpreted many 
passages of Scripture allegorically in defence of 



22 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

their peculiar doctrines. By the poor, they were 
known as skilful physicians ; and they were popu- 
larly reputed to be remarkable prophets. Many of 
their customs and beliefs, as well as those of the 
Pharisees, bear marked evidences of Persian or 
Zoroastrian origin. Some modern writers have 
attempted to trace their monastic habits and 
ascetic tendencies to the influence of Buddhism, 
but no certain or probable contact of this sect with 
the religion of Sakya-Muni has yet been clearly 
demonstrated. They appear, on the contrary, to 
have originated in Palestine by a natural evolu- 
tion out of Pharisaic Judaism. Some writers have 
attempted to identify them with the Therapeutse, 
represented to have been a monastic sect or order 
of itinerant physicians which arose in Egypt at 
about this period; but our information concerning 
them is not sufficiently trustworthy to enable us 
to affirm even their existence as a fact beyond 
dispute.* 

Though we cannot assert any probable connec- 
tion between the doctrines of any of the Jewish 
sects and those of Buddhism, it is manifest that 
other Eastern notions, chiefly of Zoroastrian ori- 
gin, were gradually creeping into the thought and 
faith of the people of Israel. Besides the more 
prominent beliefs of this character, to which allu- 
sion has already been made, ideas were probably 
already working in the Hebrew mind, which sub- 
sequently took form in the mystical and esoteric 

♦The earliest accounts of the' Therapeut® appear in a 
work attributed to Philo, but which is of doubtful authen- 
ticity. It is probably of much later date, and its testimony 
must be regarded as untrustworthy. See Kuenen, Religion 
of Israel, Vol. III. 



PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 23 

doctrines of the Kabbala,* the earliest account of 
which we find in a work attributed by current 
Jewish tradition to Rabbi Akiba, who wrote about 
120 A.D., but which, in reality, was probably 
written several centuries later. The Oriental doc- 
trine of creation by Emanation was certainly cur- 
rent at this time; and the Aramaic version of 
the Scriptures, which was commonly used in the 
synagogues, designated God by the term Memra, 
or the "Word," whenever it was desired to separate 
him in thought from the visible creation.f 

The Kauaim, or Zealots. 

Out of the long oppression of the Jews by for- 
eign rulers and the indignities offered to their 
religion, culminating in the desecration of the 
sacred temple of Yahweh, grew the party of the 
Kanaim, or Zealots. Its members were patriots 
whose zeal for their ancestral faith impelled them 
to renounce all foreign domination, and to strive 
to break the bonds of the oppressor by the force of 
arms. The Kanaim held unswervingly to the 
ancient theocratic character of the Commonwealth. 
"There is but one kingdom : it is the heavenly 
kingdom, — the kingdom of God." This was the 
motto of the Zealot. "Thou shalt make no graven 
image" was the command of the Tkorah. To 
touch a piece of money with the image of the 

* Hebrew "tradition," often spelled "Cabbala." 
tThe"Targums," or Aramaic versions of the Old Testa- 
ment writings, were at this time probably oral. The Tar- 
gum of Onkelos, the first of the written Targums, dates 
from the second century oi our era. See the able discus- 
sion of this question in "Quotations in the New Testa- 
ment," by Prof. Crawford Howell Toy, of Harvard Univer- 
sity. 



24 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

Roman emperor on it was therefore a sin in his 
eyes. Yahweh only was king. To pay taxes to a 
foreigner, the representative of false gods and an 
alien religion, was therefore a crime. To make 
contracts under the seal of the Roman officials was 
blasphemy. "How can you pretend to be pious?" 
said one of this sect to a leading Pharisee. "You 
write in contracts the name of the ruler by the 
side of that of Moses, beginning 'In the year of 
the Emperor,' and concluding 'According to the 
Law of Moses and Israel/ If the name of the 
unbeliever is in this way incorporated into con- 
tracts, can you call that piety ?" 

This uncompromising patriotism and resolute 
adherence to the old faith of Israel did not fail 
to meet with a response in the hearts of the people. 
Associations were formed, which had for their ob- 
ject the delivery of the people from the foreign 
yoke; and insurrections were frequent from the 
time of Judah of Gaulonitis, in the generation be- 
fore Christ, to that of Bar-Cochba, more than a 
century later, who was accepted as the true Mes- 
siah by a large number of the people, including 
some of the leading Rabbis of the day. During 
this period, it is said that more than fifty leaders 
arose among the Jews, claiming the Messianic 
office, each of whom had a considerable popular 
following. 

Sectional Characteristics: Galilee, Samaria, and 
Judea. 

Galilee appears to have been the fountain-head 
of these insurrectionary movements. The Gali- 
leans were a mixed race, having intermarried with 



PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 25 

the inhabitants of the surrounding neighborhood 
after the deportation of the northern tribes by the 
Assyrians. They were regarded with suspicion 
and contempt by the more conservative classes 
who inhabited Judea, and came under the direct 
influence of the government and the priestly party 
of the Sadducees who gathered around the temple 
as the centre of their worship and the chief cita- 
del of their faith. This region was often called 
"Galilee of the Gentiles" by the blue-blooded 
Jews of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the Galileans 
strenuously maintained their rights as children of 
Abraham, and were strict in their allegiance to the 
law and the temple at Jerusalem. Like the Jews 
of Judea, they despised their neighbors, the Sama- 
ritans, whose blood was even less pure than their 
own, and who had established a new temple on 
Mt. Gerizim, breaking loose entirely from all 
allegiance to the aristocratic element of Jerusalem 
and Judea. So bitter was the feeling against the 
Samaritans that it was customary for travellers 
between Galilee and Judea to avoid Samaria, 
which lay in the direct route, by crossing over to 
the east of the Jordan. 

Judah of Gaulonitis, himself a native of Galilee 
or an adjacent district, may be regarded as the 
founder of the sect of the Zealots. He taught 
that to obey the foreign ruler, or in any way de- 
part from the original theocratic constitution of 
Israel or to compromise in the least degree with 
the secular power, was rebellion against the sacred 
law of Yahweh. Rising in insurrection with a 
considerable following in the generation before 



26 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

the birth of Jesus, after a severe struggle he was 
defeated, captured, and crucified. His followers 
were scattered and disarmed, but the spirit which 
animated them was not thereby quelled. A gen- 
eration later, John of Giscala, a descendant of 
Judah, became the leader of another rebellion 
which likewise came to a disastrous end. Theu- 
das, a third sectarian leader, mentioned in the Acts 
of the Apostles, also hailed from Galilee. He 
met with some local and temporary success, and 
had many enthusiastic followers, but finally suc- 
cumbed to the fate of his predecessors. The mar- 
tyrdom of these leaders of the Kanaim by cruci- 
fixion only served to perpetuate their memories 
and give currency to their revolutionary senti- 
ments, and thus added fuel to the patriotic flame 
which was glowing in the hearts of the people. 



The Revival of Prophecy: John the Baptist. 

From among the less cultivated classes there 
also arose certain religious enthusiasts claiming 
the office and assuming the characteristic garb of 
the Hebrew prophets. They announced the speedy 
destruction of the existing order of society, and 
the coming of the kingdom of heaven through 
supernatural intervention. The popular concep- 
tion of the heavenly kingdom involved the univer- 
sal triumph and control of the Jewish theocracy, 
the annihilation of its enemies, and the re-estab- 
lishment of united Israel, with a descendant of 
the house of David to rule over them as the ser- 
vant and representative of Yahweh. Many antici- 



PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 27 

pated the return of the prophet Isaiah in person, 
as the herald of Israel's better day. John the 
Baptist, the most noteworthy of the latter-day 
prophets, was undoubtedly an historical personage. 
A brief sketch of his career is given us by Jose- 
phus, in passages of unchallenged authenticity. 
The account harmonizes in the main with the 
conception of the man which we derive from the 
familiar New Testament description, and presents 
a graphic suggestion of the effect of his impas- 
sioned exhortations upon his followers. Josephus 
also alludes to one Banus, possibly a leader of the 
Essenes, who immersed his disciples in the Jordan 
river. At a later day, one Jesus, a Judean Jew, 
uttered stern warnings and foreboding prophecies 
of evil to Jerusalem during its investment by 
Titus, prior to its final destruction in the year 70 
B.C. These leaders drew to themselves chiefly the 
less educated Pharisees and the so-called "people 
of the land," a large class of mixed parentage, 
whose poverty and menial occupations forbade a 
strict observance of the minutiae of Pharisaic ritu- 
alism, though their sympathies and associations 
were generally with this most numerous and pop- 
ular sect. 

Growth of the Messianic Idea. 

Out of all this turmoil and conflict of the sects, 
these disputes about idle formalities of ritualistic 
observance and textual interpretations, one doc- 
trine grew steadily into ever greater prominence 
in the hearts and hopes of the people,— the belief 
in a coming Deliverer, "the anointed of STahweh," 



28 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

— the Messiah. Out of the vague natural hope of 
the earlier time for the reunion of a scattered and 
divided people under a prince of the house of 
David had grown a strong belief that a leader 
would be raised up to them, sustained by the 
supernatural power of Yahweh, who would put 
an end to the existing social order, and establish 
anew the kingdom of God on earth. The Persian 
notions of a bodily resurrection and a millennial 
era of earthly prosperity, to be heralded by the 
coming of Sosiosch, "the conquering Saviour," had 
penetrated the faith of Judaism, and intensified 
and transformed the popular conception of the 
Messianic character. We would doubtless err 
greatly, if we supposed that any single, consistent 
picture of the coming Saviour was present to the 
minds of all classes. The better educated of the 
Pharisees probably still held the faith of the great 
prophets of the captivity, which regarded Israel 
itself as the Messiah of the nations, the leader of 
the world out of polytheism and idolatry to a 
knowledge of Yahweh as the one true God, and 
the conception of righteousness as his most faith- 
ful and acceptable service. The popular expec- 
tation, however, looked for a personal deliverer, 
either in the character of a great military chief- 
tain like David, who would destroy the enemies of 
Israel with the weapons of natural warfare, or in 
that of a chosen servant of Yahweh, endowed 
with supernatural powers, who would overcome 
the nations by the might of the Eternal, and her- 
ald the appearance of the everlasting kingdom. 



PAI^ESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 29 

Liberal and Conservative Pharisees.— Hillel. 

In times like these there appear not only men 
like these fanatical chieftains who fomented in- 
surrection, but also leaders by right of moral and 
intellectual superiority, who voice the higher con- 
ceptions of truth as they appear to the more 
intelligent classes, and who are yet free from that 
purblind conservatism and time-serving subser- 
vience to rulers, which characterized the educated 
Sadducees. Such a man was Rabbi Hillel, born 
about ninety years before Jesus, and dying, it is 
said, at the full age of one hundred years, when 
the founder of Christianity was about ten years 
old. Hillel was a liberal Pharisee, the leader of 
one of the two great parties into which the popu- 
lar sect was divided. Such were his services to 
Judaism that the Talmud declares, "After the 
time of Ezra, the law came into oblivion; but 
Hillel established it anew." 

Hillel was a very poor youth, but ardently am- 
bitious to learn. It is related of him that, being 
unable to pay the small fee for admission to the 
lecture-room of Shammaya and Abtalyon, he 
climbed up to the window in order to hear the 
discourses of these eminent teachers. The night 
was unusually cold ; and he lay there, benumbed, 
until the snowflakes, which were falling thick and 
fast, covered him entirely. Stiffened with cold 
and sleet, he passed the whole night in this peril- 
ous position. In the morning, when the obstruc- 
tion to the window was perceived, he was discov- 
ered almost dead from exposure. He was taken 



30 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

into the house, restored to consciousness with great 
difficulty, and thenceforth, to reward his ardor for 
learning, instruction was bestowed upon him gra- 
tuitously. 

The Character of Hillel's Teaching: the Golden 
Rule. 

A proselyte once came to Shammai, a distin- 
guished leader of the more conservative party of 
the Pharisees, — the contemporary and rival of 
Hillel, — and desired to be initiated into Judaism, 
provided he could be instructed in its precepts 
within the time during which he could stand upon 
one foot. Shammai repulsed him harshly as a 
trifler unworthy of a serious response. On making 
a similar application to Hillel, however, he received 
this reply : "My son, listen. The essence of Juda- 
ism is, Whatever is displeasing unto thee do not do 
unto others.* This is the foundation and root of 
Judaism : all else is commentary. Go, and learn." 
Won by the paternal kindness and "sweet reason- 
ableness" of the teacher, this man speedily became 
a convert to the faith. 

Hillel inculcated the belief in the merciful and 
fatherly character of God, encouraged the cultiva- 
tion of an unselfish desire for the welfare of others, 
taught the necessity and honorable nature of useful 
labor, and advocated a wise liberality in adjusting 
the harsher features of the law to the existing 

•It is noteworthy that the golden rule is given negatively 
in the recently discovered "Teaching of the Twelve Apos- 
tles," a document of very early date, perhaps older than 
either of our canonical Gospels. Confucius also gave it in 
this negative form. 



PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 31 

requirements of society. He believed that the 
irreclaimably evil would suffer eternal punish- 
ment ; but, in regard to those whose conduct was 
an intermixture of good and evil, he said, "He 
who is abundant in mercy will sink the scale unto 
mercy." 

Shammai and his disciples were the Mallocks of 
their day, preachers of the pessimistic philosophy 
that life is not worth living. "It is far better for 
men not to be born than to be born," they said. 
But Hillel replied : "Well, we are born. Therefore, 
let us be thoroughly alive, and examine well our 
actions." "Energetically seize life," was his motto. 
"Why do you make changes and innovations?" his 
opponents asked. "If I work not myself," he 
replied, "who will work for me? But, if I work 
for myself alone, what am I then ? Is it for myself 
that I desire what is good, or is it not rather the 
whole people who require to be quickened?" 

The old Jewish law made every seventh year a 
year of release, and all debts previously contracted 
and not paid were then cancelled and forgiven. 
When trade increased and men borrowed money, 
not merely from personal necessity, but for busi- 
ness purposes, this provision caused much hardship 
and inconvenience. Hillel declared that this must 
be remedied, and that thereafter contracts might 
be made with the express provision that the year 
of release should not cancel the debt. "But this 
is in violation of Holy Writ," said his opponents. 
"It may be," said Hillel ; "but, if we cling to the 
letter, all morality will be lo3t. Whether any- 
thing be written or not, the life decides." In 



32 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

rebuke of ascetics like the Essenes, and of extreme 
formalists among the Pharisees, he said : "Do not 
seclude thyself from thy fellow-men. Do not 
pretend to be pre-eminently pious. To forsake 
others as renegades and bask in the sunlight of 
exclusive piety is immoral." It is evident that the 
great rabbi was no advocate of a merely superficial 
system of morality or religious observance. 

Hillel was wont to spend much time in medita- 
tion and study, and was regular in his attendance 
at the synagogue. One day he left the sacred 
edifice hastily after the lesson for the day, excus- 
ing himself by the plea that he must attend upon 
a dear guest at his home. His disciples asked 
him, "Who is this dear guest whom thou enter- 
tainest?" "That guest," he replied, "is my own 
soul. During my intercourse with the world, it 
must be pushed back ; but, nevertheless, it claims 
its right." Although liberal in his interpretation 
of the law, Hillel was, nevertheless, a Pharisee, 
advocating strict adherence to the usual formalities 
of religion, unless they were in manifest conflict 
with the welfare and happiness of man, whom 
they were intended to serve. He kept the seventh 
day as commanded in the law, but also taught that 
all days should be deemed equally holy, and conse- 
crated to God's service by clean and righteous 
actions. When Shammai found anything particu- 
larly excellent in his studies, he said, "Let it be 
preserved for the Sabbath." Hillel said : "Praised 
be God from day to day. This is a day on which 
I may rejoice in God's goodness : another also will 
afford it." 



PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 33 

Such was the teaching of this reformer among 
the Pharisees, the most eminent Jew of the gen- 
eration before the birth of Jesus. Possibly, the 
young Galilean peasant may have sat at the feet 
of the aged teacher, and learned lessons of liber- 
ality and wisdom. In all probability, he often 
listened to these teachings as they passed from one 
to another, and were repeated in the synagogues, 
where they constituted at length a part of that 
oral law which was ultimately recorded and pre- 
served to us in the Talmud.* TVe may well 
believe that these doctrines of Hillel helped to 
inspire the humane and tender counsels of the 
founder of Christianity. 

The languages of Palestine. 

The popular language of Palestine at the advent 
of Christianity was the Syro-Chaldaic, or Aramaic, 
a mixed Semitic tongue which superseded the 
ancient Hebrew in which the Old Testament was 
written, subsequent to the Babylonian captivity. 
It is probable that neither Jesus nor any of his 
immediate disciples could speak or write in any 
other language. Greek had become the language 
of polite society and the official tongue through- 
out the Roman Empire, and was probably known 
to the leading scholars in Jerusalem ; although Jo- 
sephus, who spoke and wrote in Greek nearly a 
century after the birth of Jesus, refers to it as "an 
alien and strange tongue," and affirms that, during 
the siege of Jerusalem, he alone was able to act as 

*8ee article on the Talmud by Emanuel Deutsch {Liter- 
ary Remains), 



34 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

interpreter between the besieged inhabitants and 
the Greek-speaking commanders of the Roman 
army. The study of Greek or any foreign tongue 
was discouraged by the rabbis, who desired to 
preserve the minds of the people as free as possible 
from the contamination of foreign religious and 
philosophical ideas. "It is written," said one of 
these Hebrew teachers, " 'Thou shalt meditate on 
the law day and night.' Find me an hour which 
is neither day nor night, and in that you may study 
Greek."* 

Education among the Jews. 

Josephus declares that the education of the 
young was the first object of solicitude among the 
Jews. The Talmud re-echoes this sentiment, and 
preserves to us the fine saying, "The world is 
saved by the breath of school-children." We 
would greatly err, however, if we supposed that 
the education of the Jewish youth at this period 
embraced any general or comprehensive course of 
studies. Neither science nor letters formed any 
part of their curriculum. By education was under- 
stood, simply, instruction in the law of Moses and 
the learning by heart of the Psalms and certain 
passages from the prophetical writings. To this 
was added the oral commentary of the rabbis, 
which often tended to obscure rather than to illu- 
minate the real meaning of the Scriptures. The 
opposition to anything like what we understand 

* Greek words, however, were entering into the corrupt 
Aramaic which constituted the popular dialect. Several 
such are found in the Book of Daniel, written about 165 
B.C. The word Synagogite is also of Greek origin. 



PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 35 

by the term secular education, or even to a system 
as universal and comprehensive as that which the 
Greek and Roman youth enjoyed, was universal 
and exceedingly bitter. Strikingly similar preju- 
dices in regard to education still prevail in the 
East, even among scholarly and thinking minds, 
as we have recently seen illustrated in the attitude 
of the eloquent teacher of the Brahmo-Somaj of 
India, Babu Protap Chunder Mozoomdar. 

The Jewish prejudice against graven images, 
embodied in a commandment of the decalogue, 
operated to prevent any general education of the 
people in painting, sculpture, and the line arts. 
This prejudice doubtless arose naturally out of the 
perception of the immoralities connected with 
many forms of idolatrous worship among the 
heathen. The erection of the Roman standards, 
with the eagles and insignia of the Emperor, at 
the gates of Jerusalem and before the sacred 
temple, was the occasion of violent outbursts of 
popular fury; and the current worship of the em- 
peror or his statues enforced throughout the other 
Roman provinces was steadily and fearlessly re- 
pelled by all classes of the Jews. 

Current Peculiarities of the Synagogue Service. 

In the services of the synagogue, the Psalms 
were chanted, and their language was familiar to 
all the people. The prophets, especially Isaiah, 
and the Apocalypse of Daniel, were frequently 
read; and many passages were interpreted, as in 
the current Christian exegesis, to refer to the com- 



36 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

ing of the Messianic kingdom. With the lapse of 
time, the services in the synagogue and temple 
were becoming somewhat less free and sponta- 
neous than they had formerly been. A stated rit- 
ual, in accordance with the tendency of the Phari- 
saic formalism of the time, took the place of the 
original simplicity and spontaneity of the syna- 
gogue service. Some of the prayers in use in the 
synagogues in these early periods have been pre- 
served to us in the writings of the rabbis. They 
contain such familiar expressions as these, — as 
familiar, doubtless, to the ears of the youthful 
Jesus as to our own: — 

"Our Father, who art in heaven, proclaim the unity 
of thy name, and establish thy kingdom perpetually." 

"Let us not fall into the power of sin, transgression, 
or iniquity, and lead us not into temptation." . . . 

"Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the 
glory, and the majesty." 

"Our Father who art in heaven: thy will be done 
on high. . . . Do whatsoever seemeth good in thy sight. 
Give me only bread to eat, and raiment to put on. 
Forgive, O Lord, those who have this day offended 
thee." 

Prof. Toy, in his interesting study* recently 
published, has shown us how deeply the thought 
and phraseology of Jesus were rooted in the lan- 
guage of the Old Testament. The careful student 
can hardly fail to recognize the fact that it is not 
necessary to go beyond the boundaries of Pales- 
tine to account for the entire groundwork of the 
teaching of the Prophet of Nazareth, as it is em- 

•Quotations in the New Testament, by Prof. C. H. Toy, 
of Harvard Divinity School. 



PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 37 

bodied in the Triple Tradition of the Synoptical 
Gospels. 

Summary and Conclusion. 

A land barren by nature save the long, green 
meadows between the highlands and the sea-coast, 
and save also the northern province of Galilee at 
certain seasons, whose fields and meadows were 
brightened with a myriad flowers, — redeemed in 
part from its natural sterility under the impulse of 
the potent necessities of its inhabitants, until its 
terraced hill-sides were beautified by groves of 
olive-trees, pomegranates, and clustering vineyards, 
— a little land, isolated by nature, yet by its posi- 
tion made the highway between the great nations 
of antiquity ; a people of warm southern tempera- 
ment and Semitic intensity of religious devotion, 
cherishing in their hearts the lofty conception of 
the unity of God, though narrowed by the exclu- 
siveness of their education and life ; a people di- 
vided into various sects upon the great problems 
of the reality of a future life, and of duty in ref- 
erence to obedience to the mandates of a foreign 
ruler; a people cherishing the memories of a 
former greatness due, as they thought, to the 
might and favor of Yahweh their God, whose 
chosen nation they regarded themselves, and hop- 
ing for, believing in, a coming Deliverer anointed 
to do his work ; a people full of lofty sentiment, 
of narrow but intense religious aspirations, writh- 
ing under the oppression of a hated alien ruler 
whose power they were impotent to undermine, — 
such a land, such a people, were Palestine and the 



38 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

Jews nineteen hundred years ago. To such an 
environment and heritage of social and religious 
ideas was born the peasant boy of Galilee whom 
Christendom to-day worships as the incarnate 
Deity. Bearing in mind these facts in contem- 
poraneous history, and that wonderful provision 
of nature whereby the finer elements of a hundred 
generations sometimes combine in a single for- 
tunate organization, born in the fulness of time, 
may we not expect to discover that the fruit upon 
the vine in autumn is not a more natural and in- 
evitable result of that universal providence which, 
is manifested in the working of all eternal and 
immutable laws than was the appearance, charac- 
ter, and teaching of the Nazarene Prophet in his 
time and among these, his people? Such, I be- 
lieve, will be your unbiassed verdict, when we 
have considered together the nature of his teach- 
ing and the circumstances of his environment. 



II. 

SOCIETY AND RELIGION IN THE ROMAN 
EMPIRE. 

At the advent of Christianity, the civilized 
world was at peace. A quarter of a century 
before the birth of Jesus, the gates of the temple 
of Janus in Rome, which were always open when 
the Empire was involved in war, were closed by 
the order of Augustus Csesar, for the third time 
since the foundation of the Eternal City. Rome 
was mistress of the world, and had conquered 
peace by the might of her invincible arms. 

During the previous century, she had extended 
her power in the East under the great command- 
ers, Sulla, Lucullus, and Pompey. Asia Minor 
had been subdued, and all its vast territory was 
reduced to a tributary condition. The king of 
Armenia had been defeated. Syria and Palestine 
submitted to Pompey, and were converted to 
Roman provinces. On the north-east, the Par- 
thian successors of the ancient Persian empire 
alone maintained their independence, having thus 
far resisted all attempts at Roman invasion and 
conquest. 



40 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

Rome before the Caesars.— The Servile Insurrec- 
tion. 

Rome, in the early part of the century nominally 
a republic, was never one in reality. While the 
government was republican in form, the greater 
part of the population of the capital and chief 
cities were slaves, deprived of all civil rights. In 
the year 73 B.C., this class rose in insurrection, 
led by Spartacus, a Thrakian gladiator. For 
nearly three years, they maintained a partially 
successful warfare against the veteran armies of 
the republic, a large part of Italy being in the 
hands of the servile classes during this period. 
It was not until several powerful armies had been 
defeated, and forces of great magnitude were 
brought into the field, that the insurgents were 
overthrown. Such was the might of an oppressed 
class, struggling for equal political rights against 
the most powerful nation that the world had ever 
known. To these people, the religion of Jesus, 
with its communistic spirit and its doctrine of the 
kingdom of heaven soon to be established on the 
earth, — the inheritance of the poor and the op- 
pressed, — would come with the blessing of renewed 
hope and the promise of ultimate deliverance.* 

Pompey, victorious in the East, and successful 
in his conflicts with the pirates of the Mediterra- 
nean, was master of Rome for a time, but soon 

*The early Fathers of the Church, as will be seen here- 
after, like the Fathers of the American republic, failed to 
make a practical application of these principles to the 
existing institution of slavery, but, on the contrary, often 
directly recognized and sustained it. Nevertheless, the 
principles existed as a leaven, working for the ultimate 
regeneration of society. 



SOCIETY AND RELIGION 4\ 

had to contend with the rival talents and ambition 
of Julius Caesar. The first Triumvirate, compris- 
ing Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar, subsequently 
became arbiters of the destinies of the growing 
empire and virtual masters of the world. Caesar, 
appointed to command the armies of Rome in 
Gaul, completed the conquest of that country, and 
extended his victorious arms into Germany and 
Britain. His subsequent history, his conflicts with 
and triumphs over his rivals, his final attainment 
of the imperial power, which he held until his 
assassination in the year 44 B.C., these facts are 
too familiar to the students of history, and too 
little germane to our subject, to require further 
elaboration. 

Rome under the Caesars.— The Jewish Colony. 

Rome, the queen city of the world, at this time 
contained a population variously calculated at 
from a million and a half to eight million souls. 
The latter estimate is doubtless greatly exagger- 
ated : probably about two millions would approxi- 
mate the actual number of inhabitants. This 
population included a considerable colony of Jews, 
many of whom had emigrated to Rome during 
the earlier years of Pompey's supremacy. The 
Hebrew colonists dwelt in a mean quarter of the 
city, beyond the Tiber; and, on account of their 
social exclusiveness and the character of their 
religion, they were regarded with jealousy and 
suspicion by the masses of the native population. 
Nevertheless, they were industrious and frugal, 
and were generally entitled to the credit of being 



42 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

good citizens. Julius Caesar recognized their 
virtues, and granted them many favors. This 
Jewish colony subsequently became the nucleus of 
the Christian Church in Rome, and the earliest 
assemblies of Christians in the metropolis were 
held in the Jewish quarter of the city. 

Under the imperial sway of the Caesars, Rome 
attained a power and magnificence never previ- 
ously or subsequently equalled. Cicero, Catiline, 
Crassus, Pompey, the younger Cato, Scipio, — these 
are a few of the great names among her citizens 
during the century preceding the Christian era. 
For two hundred years, Greece had been the 
political subject of Rome, but had itself subjected 
the Eternal City intellectually, and through it the 
intelligence of the world, giving to the great 
empire its official language and its highest de- 
velopment of art, literature, and philosophy. Four 
centuries before the Christian era, the philosophy 
of Greece had reached its culmination in the 
transcendent genius of Plato, whose far-reaching 
thought has rendered all subsequent ages his 
debtors. The influence of the Platonic philosophy 
upon the development of Christian doctrine was 
not inconsiderable, and will constitute an impor- 
tant element in our later discussions. 

Religion under the Empire. — Roman Tolerance. 

Rome was more cosmopolitan and tolerant than 
any other nation of antiquity which had sought to 
extend its domain by conquest. The genius of 
Greece, on the contrary, had been pre-eminently 
dogmatic and intolerant. Even her most distin- 



SOCIETY AND RELIGION 43 

guished philosophers were expatriated, or sub- 
jected, like Sokrates, to the penalty of death, if 
their teachings appeared to conflict with any of 
the leading features of the popular theology. Her 
religion, accordingly, did not readily coalesce with 
the alien faiths of her conquered proyinces. The 
attempt to introduce it by force into Palestine had 
already resulted in the revolt of the Asmoneans 
and the final overthrow of the Greek dynasties 
which had governed that country since its conquest 
by Alexander. Rome, on the contrary, did not 
seek to overthrow the religions of her subject 
peoples, but tolerated and protected them, unless 
they opposed her secular dominion, often assimi- 
lating them in part into her own cultus with their 
foreign rites and ceremonies.* 

She had early adopted the gods of Greece, whose 
intenser personality than that of the ancient 
Roman deities attracted the worship of the masses 
of the people ; while the priests, philosophers, and 
educated classes were initiated into the mysteries 
of the "Sacred Drama of Eleusis," which prom- 
ised consolations for the trials of the present life, 
and taught the doctrine of the resurrection and 
the life to come. In the Eleusinian cultus, the 
Greek and later Roman faith reached their highest 
ethical development. Promises of future reward 
were offered to the initiated on certain conditions, 
not merely of ceremonial observance, but also of 
personal purity and piety, of justice and right- 
doing between man and man. The doctrine of 

*See Renan's English Conferences for an interesting 
discussion of the influence of the Roman religion upon 
early Christianity. 



44 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

a spiritual, pantheistic monotheism seems to have 
been taught, of which the objective anthropomor- 
phism of the popular mythology offered no sug- 
gestion. Absolute chastity was required of the 
priests during the celebration of the mysteries; 
and celibacy was made obligatory to certain orders 
of the priesthood, from the time of the assump- 
tion of the priestly office. Abstinence from certain 
articles of food was required of the celebrants. 
Initiation was preceded by a rite of purification 
resembling Christian baptism ; and a sacred meal, 
similar to the eucharist, constituted a portion of 
the ceremonial. On the nineteenth day of the 
great annual festival, a solemn sacrifice was offered 
to Asklepios, the god who had died, and was subse- 
quently resuscitated as Iakchos. The familiar-rep- 
resentations of Iakchos as a young child, with his 
mother, Persephone, — sometimes identified with 
the Egyptian deities, Horos and Isis, in the later 
Roman period, — doubtless helped to suggest the 
familiar conception of the Virgin and child in early 
Christian art ; and the mystic representation of the 
resurrection, long familiar to the favored initiates 
of Greece and Rome, prepared the way for the 
acceptance of the mythical legend of the resurrec- 
tion of Christ. "The idea of the saviour Daimdn 
sprung from the mother goddess," says Lenormant, 
"is essentially a Pelasgic and popular conception." * 
It was connected with the rites of Eleusis from 
their earliest period, and, together with the univer- 

*A most complete and interesting account of the Myste- 
ries may be found in a series of articles by Prof. Francis 
Lenormant, entitled "The Eleusinian Mysteries: A Study 
of Religious History," ia the Contemporary Review of May, 
July, et seq. 1880. 



SOCIETY AND RELIGION 45 

sal belief in the incarnation of the gods, was a 
forerunner, if not a causal prototype, of the subse- 
quently developed Christian doctrines of the mirac- 
ulous birth and the divine incarnation of Jesus. 

Oriental Influences.— Mithracism. 

About the year 180 A.D., the Emperor Commo- 
dus introduced into Rome the rival mystic and 
ritualistic worship of the Persian god Mithra, or 
Mithras. The new cultus speedily became popular 
among the literary and fashionable classes, and 
obtained public recognition until the time of Con- 
stantino. Subsequent even to the secular ascen- 
dency of Christianity, it was handed down from 
age to age through the esoteric order of the Rosi- 
crucians and the secret societies of the Middle 
Ages. The ceremonies observed in the worship of 
Mithra are described by Tertullian, a Christian 
writer of about 200 A.D., as strongly resembling 
the sacraments of the Church. The initiates were 
admitted by a rite of baptism. They worshipped 
in little chapels, similar to Christian churches. 
They made use of a species of eucharist, eating 
the sacred bread, draOna, accompanied by solemn 
religious ceremonies, while the neophyte was tested 
by twelve consecutive penances, or tortures. As in 
the Eleusinian Mysteries, the doctrines of a life 
after death, the resurrection of the body, and a 
future state of rewards and punishments, were 
taught by Mithracism. The influence of this new 
religion upon the thought and literature of the 
time was absorbing and all-pervasive. "I some- 
times allow myself to say," says Renan, "that, had 



46 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

not Christianity taken the lead, Mithracism would 
have become the religion of the world." The 
Gnostics doubtless borrowed largely from Mith- 
racism ; and the popular sects of Judaism are also 
thought to have derived many of their rites and 
doctrines from kindred mysteries, through Baby- 
lonia. The indirect influence of these conceptions 
upon the current and subsequent development of 
Christian doctrine was doubtless considerable.* 
The leading Mithraic festival, celebrated at the 
winter solstice, identical in time with the Roman 
Saturnalia, was ultimately assimilated by Chris- 
tianity, and recognized as commemorative of the 
birth of Jesus, which the apostolic tradition had 
assigned to the spring-time instead of the 25th 
of December. The cross was a Mithraic symbol 
long before the advent of Christianity.! It also 
constituted one of the eight altar implements of 
the Buddhists, and from very early times had been 
recognized as the sacred symbol of the god Nilus 
in Egypt. It is also of frequent recurrence in 
those buried cities of the Troad which Dr. Schlie- 
mann has recently exhumed. 

Decay of the Religious Sentiment.— Enhemerism. 

The latter days of the Republic and the earlier 
decades of the Empire were noteworthy for mani- 
fest evidences of the decay of the religious sen- 
timent. The intellectual classes in Italy and 

♦Mithracism is treated incidentally by Renan, English 
Conferences, and by Dean Milman, History of Christianity. 
See also Lecky, and article in Encyclopaedia Britannica. 

tFor a fuller discussion of the cross as a religious symbol, 
see The Symbolical Language of Ancient Art, by Richard 
Payne Knight, A.M. 



SOCIETY AND RELIGION 47 

Greece, including the priesthood, had become 
almost completely divorced from any vital belief 
in the current systems of mythology, based largely 
upon magic and divination, which constituted the 
popular religion. Repelled from these supersti- 
tions, they found their solace in the pursuit of 
philosophy and the investigation of the esoteric 
doctrines of the mysteries. The theories of Eu- 
hemeros, a Greek writer who endeavored to trace 
the myths and stories of the gods to a natural 
source in purely human incidents, obtained wide 
acceptance among the educated classes. Euhe- 
meros taught that the gods were originally great 
kings or heroes, whom their admirers had deified. 
All that is related of them, he said, is but the 
exaggeration and glorification of common events, 
which we may readily trace back to their historical 
sources. Thus, when Kronos is said to have 
swallowed his own children, and to have been 
dethroned by Jupiter, we are to understand that 
we have the allegorized history of a king in ancient 
times, when human sacrifices were offered, who 
was dethroned by another king, who at the same 
time abolished these sacrifices. The conception, 
of Euhemeros early passed over from Greece to 
Rome. His book was translated into Latin, and 
his views speedily became predominant. So gen- 
eral was the contempt for the superstitions of the 
popular mythology that it is reported that, when 
two members of the priestly hierarchy — the augurs 
or haruspices — met in public, it was with the 
utmost difficulty that they could restrain their 
laughter. 



48 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

It was an easy transition from the doctrine of 
Euhemeros to the adoration of living men as gods. 
The emperors demanded and received divine 
honors, a custom which may have been suggested 
by a similar one long prevalent among the Hindus, 
and recognized in their code as a sacred obliga- 
tion. We read in the Institutes of Manu : " Even 
though a child, the king must not be treated 
lightly, from an idea that he is a mere mortal. 
No : he is a powerful divinity who appears in 
human shape."* A survival of this custom, trans- 
mitted to the Eastern branch of the Christian 
Church, still prevails in Russia, where the czar, or 
Caesar, is addressed in the popular catechism — 
prepared by the government and which every 
child is compelled to learn — as "our god on earth." 
The transition from these beliefs to the doctrine 
of the Divine Incarnation as promulgated by 
Christianity would evidently be easy and natural. 

Revival of Paganism.— Commerce and Civiliza- 
tion. 

This doctrine, indeed, in its pre-Christian form, 
appears to have been directly connected with a 
marked change which was observable in the tone 
of religious sentiment throughout the empire from 
about the time of the advent of Christianity. Dur- 
ing the years of peace which succeeded the assump- 
tion of imperial power by Augustus Caesar there 
occurred a noteworthy revival of the dormant relig- 
ious feeling among the people. This tended to as- 
sume the form of the veneration of the sacred city 

*Manu vii., iv.,8. See also Early Laws and Customs, 
by Sir Henry Sumner Maine. 



SOCIETY AND RELIGION 49 

itself, — of Rome, now the mistress of the civilized 
world, — and of the emperor as her incarnate repre- 
sentative. Statues of the emperor appeared every- 
where, and received the adoration of the populace. 
Altars dedicated to the genius of Rome were set up 
at the cross-roads throughout Italy and in many of 
the provinces. The Jews alone steadily repelled 
this form of worship, as they also rejected the 
related doctrine of the divine incarnation of Jesus. 
Nor was this revival of the religious sentiment 
the only significant event of this long period of 
peace. Commerce, which had previously struggled 
against the conflicting interests and jealousies of 
alien States, now extended its beneficent influences 
without hindrance among the friendly provinces of 
the mighty empire, carrying with it material pros- 
perity and a genuine cosmopolitan spirit, sowing 
everywhere the seeds of brotherhood and peace. No 
political economist of the "American School," fortu- 
nately, had yet arisen to sound the praises of high 
protective or prohibitory tariffs, or to raise a craven 
and selfish protest against "competition with the 
pauper labor" of the neighboring provinces. The 
only obstacles which this growing spirit of frater- 
nity among the nations had to combat were the 
physical difficulties of overcoming the separating 
conditions of time and space, and the local preju- 
dices, religious and political, of nations which were 
not included under the protection of the eagles of 
Rome. So important was this new impetus to the 
commercial spirit to the future of Christianity that 
it may be affirmed in general terms that the subse- 
quent progress of the new religion was co-extensive 



50 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

with the limits of commercial freedom. The con- 
fines of the Roman Empire became, practically, the 
bonndaries of Christian propagandism. The out- 
lying nations which had not been reduced to the 
condition of Roman dependencies — with the ex- 
ception of those whose civilization was of later 
growth — have never been permanently converted 
to the Christian faith. 

The Stoic Philosophy. 

The most remarkable ethical movement of the 
period now under consideration may doubtless 
be discovered in the rise and progress of the Stoic 
Philosophy, especially in its influence upon the 
lives and public careers of the ''five good emper- 
ors," Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines. 
Introduced into the Roman Empire from Cyprus 
by Zeno soon after the time of Alexander the 
Great, its germs were not improbably, like those 
of Christianity, of Semitic origin.* At first, it 
attracted little popular notice, and subsequently 
drew public attention only to be regarded as an 
enemy to the state religion, in consequence of 
which it experienced a period of persecution and 
martyrdom which preceded and temporarily ri- 
valled that which subsequently befell the Christians ► 
Its leading advocates and teachers were of stainless 

*Zeno was himself of Phoenician birth, a native of 
Citium in Cyprus, a city populated in part from Phoe- 
nicia, a "A striking feature in post-Aristotelian philoso- 
phy," says Zeller* "... is the fact that so many of its 
representatives come from Eastern countries, in which 
Greek and Oriental modes of thought met and mingled. 
. . . Next to the later Neo-Platonic school, this remark is 
of none more true than the Stoic."— The Stoics, Epicureans^ 
and Sceptics, by Dr. E. Zeller, Professor in the University 
of Heidelberg, p. 35 et seq. 



SOCIETY AND RELIGION 51 

personal reputation, and its doctrines embodied 
the purest principles of self-abnegation and altru- 
istic morality. Its disciples were animated by a 
lofty patriotism and a fine spirit of benevolence 
toward their fellow-men of every social condition, 
a spirit which conflicted with the despotic impulses 
of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero as inevitably as 
it sustained and directed the good emperors during 
that succeeding interval which Gibbon terms "the 
period in the history of the world during which 
the condition of the human race was the most 
happy." In its ethical and humane tendencies, it 
prepared the way for the precepts of the Christian 
gospel, though its noteworthy freedom from the 
contamination of popular superstitions and from 
the metaphysical mysticism of the current philoso- 
phies unfitted it for general popular acceptance in 
the age in which it appeared. 

"Equality and the abstract idea of the rights of 
man," says Renan, "were boldly preached by Stoi- 
cism." The amelioration of the condition of the 
poor and the oppressed was an ever-present pur- 
pose in the minds of its disciples. It was Trajan, 
the friend of the Stoics, acting doubtless under the 
benign influence of the pure teachings of this 
philosophy, and not a Christian emperor, who first 
established orphan asylums in Rome. It was An- 
toninus Pius who founded additional asylums for 
poor young girls, in honor of his wife, the Empress 
Faustina, whom he loved so well. Christianity, in 
its public charities, did but assume and continue a 
work which had originated under the influence of 
Stoicism; yet we hear it proclaimed continually, 



52 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

and recently by a religious teacher no less eminent 
and liberal than Henry Ward Beecher, that the 
earliest institutions for public charity were estab- 
lished by the Christian Emperors.* 

It is foreign to our purpose to present here a 
complete exposition of the doctrines of Stoicism. 
It is sufficient to direct attention to it as a 
noteworthy moral force in the centuries imme- 
diately succeeding and following the advent of 
Christianity, antedating the new religion in the 
promulgation of many of its humane and ethical 
principles. The system which proclaimed the 
doctrine of human equality, and which honored 
Epictetus, the slave, as one of its worthiest rep- 
resentatives and apostles, was surely not devoid of 
that democratic principle which afterward com- 
mended the Christian religion to the oppressed 
peoples of Europe. Had it presented its doctrines 
in a more popular form and consented to compro- 
mise with current superstitions, the face of history 
during the succeeding centuries might have been 
widely changed.f 

Egypt under the Greeks and Romans. 

Passing now in thought from the immediate 
vicinity of Rome to the shores of Africa, we find 
Egypt a subject nation, long shorn of its ancient 
pre-eminence and power. Five hundred years 

*Rev. Newenhani Hoare, of London, late chaplain to the 
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, is the author of an interesting 
pamphlet showing that hospitals for the afflicted existed 
many centuries before Christianity. 

t An admirable popular presentation of the doctrines of 
Stoicism may be found in F. May Holland's Reign of the 
Stoics. See also Kenan's Marcus Aurelius, and standard 
works on the history of philosophy. 



SOCIETY AND RELIGION 53 

before, it had been conquered by the Persians; 
and for more than a century it remained a Persian 
province. Subsequently, for a second period, it 
was subjected by the Persian arms. Under the 
influence of Zoroastrianism, the latent dualism in 
its ancient religion had been developed. The sun- 
god Seth, the old-time physical antagonist of 
Osiris, took on the moral depravity of the Persian 
Ahriman, and became the prototype of the Hebrew- 
Satan and the Christian Devil. In the esoteric 
doctrines of the priesthood were prefigured many 
of the metaphysical notions of the Gnostics and of 
the orthodox Christian theology. 

In the year 332 B.C., Egypt was conquered by 
Alexander the Great; and for a thousand years 
thereafter, in its intellectual development, it re- 
mained essentially a Greek province. Alexander 
founded the city of Alexandria, which contained 
a composite population of Greeks, Egyptians, and 
Jews. It speedily became one of the great capitals 
of the world, and the chief centre of Greek culture 
and civilization. After the death of Alexander, 
Egypt passed under the rule of the Ptolemies, — a 
succession of rulers of Macedonian extraction, to 
which dynasty belonged the celebrated Cleopatra, 
who reigned jointly with her brother in the year 
30 B.C., at the time of the Roman conquest. 

The Greek influence effected not merely a politi- 
cal, but also a social and intellectual revolution in 
Egypt. Its religious and literary life, as well as its 
art and architectural development, had been hin- 
dered and restrained by the rigid sacerdotalism of 
the ancient regime. Together with political servi- 



54 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

tude, Egypt derived from the Greeks and Romans 
a larger measure of mental liberty than she had 
before enjoyed, the influence of which was mani- 
fested in a new and wonderful intellectual life 
which centred in the Alexandrian schools. The 
popular religion of the Roman Empire commingled 
with the old historic faith of the country. The 
gods of Egypt were identified with those of Greece 
and Rome, and foreign notions were projected into 
the ancient religion, — a tendency which resulted 
in intellectual confusion, and ultimately in bring- 
ing the popular mythologies into contempt among 
the thinking classes of the people. The fragment 
of the ancient Egyptian race, however, though 
powerless politically, still clung to their ancestral 
faith, which awaited the universalizing, solvent, 
and assimilative influence of Christianity to com- 
pel its final disintegration. The remnants of the 
indigenous race, known to us as the Kopts, were 
early converts to the new religion ; and Alexandria 
became an important Christian bishopric. 

Alexandrian Influence on Christianity.— Philo 
Jadaeus. 

The subject of the relations of the religion of 
ancient Egypt to the Hebrew cultus is one of 
exceeding interest, but here calls for no extended 
treatment. The large colony of Jews in Egypt had 
long since adopted the Greek language, which they 
employed not only in their daily intercourse, but 
also in the worship of the synagogues and the cer- 
emonies of their religion, — the ancient Hebrew 
faith as modified in Judaism. They had even 



SOCIETY AND RELIGION 55 

transformed a forsaken temple of the Egyptian 
cat-goddess, Pasht, at Leontopolis, into a copy of 
the temple at Jerusalem, — a proceeding which was 
uot regarded with favor by the Jews of Palestine, 
who viewed with increasing distrust and jealousy 
the influences proceeding from their brethren in 
Egypt. In Alexandria, under the patronage, it is 
said, of the reigning Ptolemy, the Hebrew Script- 
ures had been translated into Greek. This trans- 
lation, the Septuagint, was frequently used and 
quoted by the Christian Fathers, and furnished an 
invaluable aid to the introduction and promulgation 
of the new religion. Those social and commercial 
influences which we have already noted as prevai) 
ing throughout the Roman Empire, that tended 
subsequently to promote the spread of Christianity, 
were notably present in this new metropolis. 
Alexandria was a great commercial centre, her 
population being mainly devoted to manufactures 
and trade. The common people among the Jews 
had learned of the skilled workmen of Egypt the 
secrets of their crafts, and for mutual protection 
had associated themselves in guilds like the mod- 
ern trades-unions, the members of which engaged 
to support each other when out of work.* 

The influence of Alexandria, in bringing to- 
gether people of diverse races and religions, in 
promoting a cosmopolitan spirit in religion and 
philosophy, in sustaining commerce and thus 

♦It is noteworthy that many of the social influences tend- 
ing to the amelioration of the condition of the laboring 
poor, which are commonly assumed to have received their 
original impetus from Christianity, are traced by the im- 
partial historian to pre-Christian times. 



56 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

bringing distant parts of the empire into closer 
relations, in hastening the decay of the ancient 
faiths and furnishing material and proselytes for 
the new, was of the greatest significance in the his- 
tory of early Christianity. The Alexandrian school 
of philosophy, which attempted to fuse into a single 
system Oriental mysticism, Jewish intuitionalism, 
— the doctrine of a divine revelation, — and the 
metaphysical idealism of Plato ; which culminated 
during the third century of the Christian era in 
Neo-Platonism, — the final form and product of 
Greek philosophy, — and the influence of which was 
predominant in the formation of the dogmatic 
theology of the Christian Church, had an origin 
almost contemporary with the beginnings of Chris- 
tianity. Its earliest representative was Philo Ju- 
daeus, a Greek-speaking Jew, a Pharisee by belief 
and association, though by descent, it is said, of 
the priestly family of Aaron.* In the philosophy 
of Philo, Judaism first escaped from the bondage 
of its national exclusiveness, and admitted that 
spiritual truth was discoverable elsewhere than in 
the Hebrew writings. This admission, however, 
was not full and explicit, but was accompanied by 
the historically indefensible claim that the truths 
of the Platonic philosophy were themselves derived 
from the writings of Mo3es and the prophets. 
The philosophy of Philo was an attempt, by means 
of an elaborate system of allegorical interpretation, 
to discover these abstruse metaphysical dogmas in 
the Hebrew Scriptures. 



♦Philo was a contemporary of Jesus, born probably some 
wenty or thirty years before the ™ 
dying some years later than Jesus. 



twenty or thirty years before the Nazarene prophet, and 
ila^ 



SOCIETY AND RELIGION 57 

Philo's teaching was based upon that Oriental 
dualism which, originating perhaps in the later 
development of Zoroastrianism, had penetrated 
Judaism and the religion of Egypt after the Per- 
sian conquests, and found its clearest philosophical 
expression in the doctrines of Plato. It conceived 
an absolute separation and antagonism between 
spirit and matter ; between the Infinite High and 
Holy One, whose nature was purely subjective and 
spiritual, and the objective universe. How, then, 
could the universe be created, since there was this 
infinite separation between God and matter? This 
was the problem which Philo attempted to solve, 
in harmony with the teaching of the Scriptures 
and the doctrine of Plato. Upon the familiar lan- 
guage of Genesis, "And God said, Let there be 
light," he based his theory of the creative Word, 
— the Logos.* Not the infinitely pure and spirit- 
ual deity, accordingly, but the Logos, an emana- 
tion from the supreme God, was the creator of the 
universe. Philo did not absolutely personify the 
Logos, nor identify it with any historical indi- 
vidual, as in the later Christian development of 
the doctrine. His thought appears to hover be- 
tween the conception of the Logos as an attribute 
— a purely metaphysical idea, similar to the ideas 
of Plato — and its more complete personification. 
The Logos was the Demiourgos, the shaper of 
primeval matter; the first begotten Son of God, 

*This doctrine, as we have seen, had already penetrated 
Jndaism from the East, and was used by the Rabbis of 
Palestine in their Aramaic commentaries on the Script- 
ures. This use was prooably known to Philo, and may 
have helped to suggest his theory of the common origin 
of the Hebrew writings and the Platonic philosophy. 



58 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

the shadow and seeming portrait of God, by means 
of which, as by an assumed instrument, the world 
was made; the heavenly food of the soul, from 
whom all eternal instructions and wisdoms flow ; 
the fountain of wisdom; heavenly and immortal 
nourishment : such are the descriptive expressions 
in the writings of Philo, many of them strikingly 
like the familiar teaching of the Fourth Gospel.* 

"He strains every nerve toward the highest 
divine Logos, ... in order that, drawing from that 
spring, he may escape death and win everlasting 
life.f . . . Nothing is more luminous and irradiat- 
ing than the divine Logos, by the participation in 
which other things dispel darkness and gloom, 
earnestly desiring to partake of the living Light.J 
. . . The stamp of the seal of God is the immortal 
Logos.§ . . . The divine Logos is free from all sins, 
voluntary and involuntary. . . . Those who have 
knowledge of the truth are properly called the 
sons of God : || he who is still unfit to be named 
the son of God should endeavor to fashion him- 
self to the first-born Logos of God. ... It is im- 
possible for the love of the world and the love of 
God to co-exist." ^f It is hardly possible to conceive 
that the author of the Fourth Canonical Gospel 
was not familiar with these expressions drawn 
from the writings of Philo, or that his identifica- 
tion of Jesus with the Logos was not based upon 
the then current teachings of the Alexandrian 

♦See Mangey's ed. of Philo's Works, vol. i., pp. 308, 106, 
482, 560. Compare John i.-xiv., 3 ; vi., 35, etc. 
tCompare John vi. , 40. t Compare John i. , 4, 6-9. 

§ Compare John vi., 27. || Compare John i., 12. 

T Compare John xvii., 9-14, etc. 



SOCIETY AND KELIGION 59 

philosophy. Of the further development of this 
doctrine in the systems of the Gnostics and the 
orthodox Christian theology, we shall have occa- 
sion to speak hereafter. 

Carthage and Phoenicia,— their Gifts to Civilisa- 
tion. 

Four centuries before the Christian era, the 
great Punic or Carthaginian empire had possessed 
all the coast of Africa west of Egypt, and con- 
trolled the greater number of the islands of the 
Western Mediterranean. It had inherited from its 
Phoenician founders the traits of a great commer- 
cial nation, and was one of the first countries in 
the world to substitute sailing vessels for galleys 
propelled by oars. A century and a half before 
the Christian era, this nation was virtually extin- 
guished. All that remained of it was the power- 
less subject of Rome. So little had Carthage 
bequeathed to the world, that we know less of her 
history than of any other nation of antiquity. 
Her religion was borrowed from Phoenicia. Baal, 
Ashtoreth, and Melkarth, gods of the fierce and 
destructive powers of nature, were her deities ; 
and, as in the parent country, they were worshipped 
with sensual and barbarous rites and bloody sac- 
rifices, often of human victims. The gentler and 
humaner religion of Rome was a pleasing substi- 
tute for this cruel barbarism. The new Roman 
city of Carthage, founded by Augustus Caesar, grew 
rapidly, but never attained the commercial promi- 
nence of its predecessor. It became an important 
Christian bishopric early in the third century* 



60 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

Among other notable names in the history of the 
Church, Carthaginia furnished that of Augustine, 
whose influence was predominant in the formation 
of the Christian theology.* 

Phoenicia, with its great commercial cities, Tyre 
and Sidon, had reached the zenith of its power 
eight hundred years before the Christian era, and 
had now long been falling into decay. It had 
been conquered by Alexander the Great, by whose 
armies Tyre was reduced to ashes, many of its 
inhabitants were slain, and the remainder were 
sold as slaves. Though subsequently rebuilt, it 
never regained its former commercial importance. 
Phoenicia lacked that supreme ethical element in 
its civilization which alone suffices to insure per- 
manence in the life of nations. Apart from the 
commercial spirit which it transmitted to other 
nations, there was little in its example worthy to 
live in history. No important remains of a Phoeni- 
cian literature have been preserved to us,f though 
that country modified and transmitted to Europe 
from Egypt the vehicle of all modern literature, — 
the alphabet. Phoenicia was a nation of shop- 
keepers. Its morals, religion, official stations, as 
well as its goods, were for sale to the highest bidder. 

* May not some of the barbarous features of this theology 
be traceable to the indefinable, but none the less positive 
influence of survivals of this earlier theological barbarism ? 

tThere is, nevertheless, considerable indirect evidence 
that Phoenicia was not without a distinctive and charac- 
teristic philosophy of indigenous growth and strong Se- 
mitic peculiarities. Speaking of the Greek and Roman 
Empires in the centuries immediately preceding the Chris- 
tian era, Ritter declares, "Tne wisdom of the Magi, of the 
Egyptians, and of the Phoenician priests and the Jews soon 
became famous."— History of Ancient Philosophy, by Dr. 
Heinrich Ritter. Vol. iv., p. 18. 



SOCIETY AND RELIGION 61 

Conquered by the Romans in the year 64 B.C., its 
life and civilization were assimilated into the 
greater life of the Western world, and it ceased to 
exist as a nation. 

The Keltic Communities.— The Druids and their 
Religion. 

Spain, Gaul, and Britain, nations of Western 
Europe, were annexed to the Roman Empire 
during the half-century preceding the advent of 
Christianity. Spain soon became thoroughly Ro- 
manized, and remained for many years one of the 
chief centres of Roman literature and civilization. 
The Keltic element predominated in its population, 
as also in Gaul and Ireland. At this period, Spain 
and Gaul swarmed with Roman burgesses and 
merchants. It was almost impossible for a native 
of Gaul to transact a piece of business without the 
intervention of a Roman. Roman farmers and 
graziers were busy introducing improved methods 
of agriculture, — an occupation for which the 
Keltic peoples had never manifested any fondness. 
Their principal pursuits were navigation and pas- 
toral husbandry. They were the first people who 
regularly navigated the Atlantic Ocean. 

The inland Kelts, whose domains extended back 
into the western districts of Switzerland and 
Germany, were mainly occupied in breeding and 
rearing domestic animals. They were everywhere 
a people of rude tastes, and literature and the arts 
were in a very low state among them. The politi- 
cal structure of the Keltic communities was that 
of a loosely compacted confederation, tending to 



62 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

feudalism. Its basis was the clan-canton, organ- 
ized with a governing prince or chief, a council of 
elders, and a community of freemen capable of 
bearing arms. All non-combatants were excluded 
from citizenship. Women were held in so low an 
estimate that they were ranked with slaves, the 
laws permitting the torture of these two classes, 
but prohibiting the torture of freemen. 

The Keltic priesthood, known as the Druids, 
united all Gaul and the British Isles in a common 
religious brotherhood. It constituted a compact 
organization, the chief of which, a sort of pope, 
was elected by a convocation of priests, as the 
pope of Rome is now chosen by the college of 
cardinals. Priests were exempt from taxation and 
military service. They held annual councils, and 
administered a kind of governmental jurisdiction 
over the people. They were permitted to inflict 
capital punishment by sacrificing condemned 
criminals in their religious ceremonies. Bodies of 
human victims often smoked on the same sacrifi- 
cial altars with those of beasts. The Druids thus 
constituted a sort of ecclesiastical state or theoc- 
racy, and ruled over an unintelligent and believ- 
ing people similar to the Irish peasants of the pres- 
ent day. The word "Druid " is derived by the best 
philologists from two Keltic roots meaning "God- 
speaking," which indicates a belief in supernatural 
inspiration similar to that claimed for the Hebrew 
prophets. The Druidical religion inculcated the 
worship of one supreme Being, but encouraged also 
the veneration of fetiches. A sacred fire, kindled 
with certain religious ceremonials, was reverenced 



SOCIETY AND RELIGION 63 

as a symbol of the sun. Circular temples, open at 
the top to admit the sunlight, were dedicated to 
the solar deity. Their religious rites were often 
celebrated in sacred groves of oak. 

The Druids taught the doctrine of a future life, 
and a state of rewards and punishments. They 
professed "to reform morals, secure peace, and 
encourage goodness." "They assumed," says 
Caesar, "to discourse of the hidden nature of 
things, of the extent of the universe and of the 
earth, of the forms and movements of the stars, 
and of the power and rule of the gods." They 
practised astrology, divination, and magic. Relics 
found among Druidical remains in Ireland are 
thought to have constituted parts of astronomical 
instruments designed to illustrate the motion and 
phases of the moon. A sacred character was 
ascribed to the oak, mistletoe, hyssop, vervain, 
and marshwort. These plants were plucked only 
after ceremonial ablutions and offerings of bread 
and wine. This primitive religion was supplanted 
in part by that of the Romans, and subsequently 
the Keltic populations easily assimilated the forms 
and doctrines of Latin Christianity, many of which 
were prefigured in the older faith. 

Character and Religion of the Teutonic Peoples. 

Concerning the Teutonic tribes of Northern 
Europe, little was known before the time of Caesar. 
At the commencement of the Christian era, they 
constituted a horde of semi-barbarous peoples, 
many of them agriculturists and having some 
fixed settlements. Their chief occupations, how- 



64 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

ever, were hunting, the care of cattle, and the pur- 
suit of arms. They were brave and independent 
by nature, but given to the vices of gambling and 
intoxication, the evil influences of which largely 
counteracted the nobler traits which might have 
raised them earlier out of barbarism. 

Their population was divided into nobles, free- 
men, and serfs. The freemen elected their chiefs, 
whom the Romans often called kings. The Teu- 
tons held women and aged people in high regard. 
They honored chastity no less than valor, and 
presented a picture of domestic life more perfect 
and beautiful than could be found elsewhere in 
the Western world. This characteristic, with a 
robust mentality and ingrained love of personal 
liberty, were the chief gifts of this people to the 
civilization of the future; gifts which led them 
as naturally and inevitably to Protestant Chris- 
tianity, and through it to Rationalism, as the 
characteristics of the Kelts led them to Catholi- 
cism. "It was the rude barbarians of Germany," 
says Guizot, "who introduced this sentiment of 
personal independence, this love of individual 
liberty, into European civilization; it was un- 
known among the Romans, it was unknown to the 
Christian Church, it was unknown in nearly all 
the civilizations of antiquity." He might have 
added with truth, It is the most powerful and 
characteristic element of our modern civilization. 

The religion of the Teutons was in part devel- 
oped from the Nature-worship of the primitive 
Aryan peoples, with an intermixture, apparently, 
of Semitic or Babylonian elements, an inheritance, 



SOCIETY AND RELIGION 65 

perhaps, from the Turanian tribes, whom they 
supplanted in Europe. In part, doubtless, it was 
of later indigenous growth. It was essentially a 
polytheistic system, including the worship of Odin 
or Thor, and his consort Fria, or Frigga, Tiu, the 
heaven-god, corresponding with Zeus, Jupiter, and 
the Vedic Dyaus-pitar, and many other subordi- 
nate deities. Priests, bards, and sacred groves 
were dedicated to this worship. The doctrine of 
a future life in Walhalla was taught. The gods 
were considered mortal like human beings, as 
with the Buddhists. Domestic animals, including 
horses, and sometimes human victims, were offered 
as sacrifices. The religion of the Teutons was 
less influenced by the Pagan cultus of Rome than 
that of the Kelts, during its transition to Chris- 
tianity. 

Resume and Conclusion. 
At the advent of Christianity, Greece, through 
the conquests of Alexander, had already contribu- 
ted to the civilization of the future her wealth of 
art, literature, and philosophy, the sum of which 
is known as Hellenic culture. Rome, under the 
mighty power of the Caesars, was bestowing upon 
the Western world the blessing of the most per- 
fect code of laws which was then in being, and 
uniting the nations in a common brotherhood of 
citizenship. Phoenicia had long before communi- 
cated the commercial spirit to Carthage and to 
Greece, and through them to Rome, thus bringing 
distant peoples into closer communion; a mighty 
and too little recognized influence in promoting 
civilization and brotherhood. 



66 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

Rome, with her State religion, — a hollow ecclesi- 
asticism to the more intelligent, — stood ready, at 
the demand of self-interest, to dethrone Jupiter, 
and to pass over the temples of her gods, her 
images, her festivals, the paraphernalia of her 
priests, and the title of Pontifex Maximus, then 
held by Caesar as the head of the Pagan cultus, 
to that new religion which, through the supremacy 
of the empire among the nations of the world, 
was soon to make such mighty strides toward 
universal dominion. Her sculptured heads of 
Jupiter were to descend to posterity, rechristened 
by the name of St. Peter ; and her little god Vati- 
canus, whose function it was to watch over the 
first lisping of infants, was to bestow his name 
upon the Vatican, — the palace of the Christian 
popes. 

The great Aryan monotheism of Zoroaster had 
met in Babylon the great Semitic monotheism of 
the Hebrew prophets, and, together with some 
more questionable benefactions, had blessed it 
with its gift of a belief in a life beyond the grave, 
and thus prepared the way for one of the leading 
doctrines of Christianity. The word "Father" as 
applied to the Supreme Being had entered Juda- 
ism from that other contact with the Aryan races 
through the Greeks, and was used by Jewish 
Rabbis of the century preceding the birth of 
Jesus. The Hebrew doctrine of the Messiah had 
taken a new and more personal form under the 
influence of contemporary Persian notions, and the 
stimulus of foreign oppression. Millennial expec- 
tations imported from Babylon were "in the air." 



SOCIETY AND RELIGION 67 

The writers of the Book of Daniel and the apoc- 
ryphal Book of Enoch had applied the term "the 
Son of Man" — a common designation of the 
prophets — to designate the coming Messiah. Jon- 
athan ben Uzziel, a Jewish Rabbi and contempo- 
rary of Jesus, was interpreting various passages 
in the Old Testament with the phrase Memra, "the 
Word," derived probably through Babylon from 
India. Hillel had already proclaimed the "Golden 
Rule" as the substance and foundation of Judaism. 

The ancient religion of Egypt was without 
vitality, but preserved a lingering existence. 
Some of her gods had passed over to Rome; the 
figures of Isis and Horos, and Persephone and 
Iakchos were prefiguring the familiar Christian 
representation of the Virgin and Child. The 
Greek gods were emigrating to Egypt, Phoenicia, 
Assyria, Gaul, and Spain, as well as to Rome. 
The Eternal City welcomed the new gods as 
heartily as she despised them all, both new and 
old. The recognition of the old gods under new 
names — the transfer of functions and characteris- 
tics from one to another — was leading the way 
through scepticism to monotheism. In Rome, the 
gods were said to be more numerous than the 
people. In Athens, every street corner had its 
statue of a deity. The world was weary of con- 
flict, unsatisfied with existing philosophies, dis- 
gusted with priestly arrogance, sophistry, and in- 
sincerity, but longing for a religion which would 
proclaim the growing faith in the Fatherhood of 
God and the Brotherhood of Man. 

From the time of Alexander, war had been the 



68 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

most potent civilizer, drawing together the nations, 
with their diverse civilizations and religions, into a 
closer unity, to which each contributed its peculiar 
gift, which the world received and assimilated into 
its common life. Looking back through the cen- 
turies over the broad sweep of the entire horizon of 
this ancient world, above the conflict of arms, the 
groans of the poor, the dying, and the oppressed, 
the loud laughter of the Roman augurs at the ab- 
surdity of their rites, the sneers of sceptical philos- 
ophy-mongers who believed neither in the gods 
nor in the moral law, — may we not behold the 
working of that Power, eternal and invincible, 
that in all ages makes for righteousness, civili- 
zation, and brotherhood ? Do we not perceive the 
growing intelligence and virtues of man, triumph- 
ing over his wrath and wickedness and folly, al- 
ready building up the better kingdom of the 
future, — the Kingdom of God on earth, which is 
also the Republic of Man ? Shall we not see in 
the peasant child of Galilee the "Son of Man" 
indeed, — the natural product of his race and time, 
participating in some of its errors and super- 
stitions, but ready to speak the vital word for hu- 
manity fearlessly and unfalteringly, willing to die 
rather than falter or recant? All the circum- 
stances of this period point to the conclusion that 
old uses were outgrown ; a new era was about to 
dawn in the life of humanity, — the product of 
easily discernible and perfectly natural causes. A 
fateful hour had arrived in the history of civiliza- 
tion, and it did not seek in vain for its man. 



m. 

SOURCES OF INFORMATION". 

, Like Zoroaster, Buddha, and the great religious 
teachers of India, Jesus of Nazareth left no written 
word. Absorbed in the pressing labors of the 
moment, anticipating no extended future for the 
existing order of society, knowing, probably, no 
language but his native Galilean tongue, his im- 
passioned appeals, his charming illustrative para- 
bles, his brief and sententious aphorisms, have 
been transmitted to us through the medium of 
oral tradition, collected and put in writing some 
time after his death. In the extant documents, 
the original tradition is intermingled with a 
mythical and legendary accretion of subsequent 
origin and development, and translated into an 
alien tongue. We have absolutely no contempo- 
rary record of the life and teachings of Jesus, 
either in or out of the writings of the New 
Testament. 

Early Christian Literature.— The Story of the 
Manuscripts. 

The earliest of these writings, in the order of 
their composition, are the Epistles of Paul. These 
and the other genuine Epistles of the New Testa- 
ment and the Apostolic Fathers throw valuable 



70 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

light upon the primitive phases of Christian 
belief ; but, beyond the mere fact that they assume 
the previous existence and tragical death of Jesus, 
and give currency to the early tradition of his 
resurrection, they afford us absolutely no informa- 
tion concerning him. Paul quotes but once the 
language of Jesus, — a single phrase in connection 
with a reference to the commemoration of the 
last supper: "This cup is the new covenant in 
my blood: this do ye as often as ye drink it in 
remembrance of me." (I. Cor. xi., 25.) 

For information concerning the life and teach- 
ings of Jesus, therefore, we are confined exclu- 
sively to the four Gospels.* Testimony, corrobo- 
rative of his historical verity, may, as already 
indicated, be derived from the New Testament 
Epistles and the writings of the early Christian 
Fathers, who everywhere assume it as an unques- 
tioned fact, and also from a few fragmentary 
allusions in the works of Jewish and Pagan writers 
in the first and early part of the second centuries. 
The destructive theory which doubts the existence 
of Jesus as an historical personage, and regards 
the gospel stories as entirely mythical, has no 
support whatever in the history and literature of 
the early Christian centuries. Of the reasons for 
the lack of frequent allusions to Jesus by Jewish 
and Pagan writers of the period, we shall have 
occasion to speak hereafter. 

♦Perhaps an exception should also be made in favor of 
the recently published Teaching of the Twelve Apostles 
and the extant fragments of the "Gospel of the Hebrews," 
which are doubtless as old or older than the Gospels, and 
in general confirm the testimony of the Synoptics. Refer- 
ence will hereafter be made to these documents. 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 71 

For testimony concerning the date and reliability 
of the gospel histories, apart from the internal 
evidence of the documents, we must depend almost 
exclusively upon the writings of the early Fathers 
of the Church, sustained or corrected by such 
pertinent facts as may be derived from the secular 
history of the period. We have also certain ex- 
tant documents, mainly anonymous or pseudony- 
mous, known as the Apocryphal Gospels* and 
Epistles, which were regarded as genuine by some 
portion of the early Christian communities, and 
which are valuable for comparison with the books 
of the New Testament. Some of them are doubt- 
less as old as or older than our canonical Gospels, 
and they throw considerable light upon the develop- 
ment of doctrine and the differentiation of heretical 
sects from the main body of Christian believers dur- 
ing the earliest Christian centuries. In this lecture, 
it is proposed to examine the bearings of this lit- 
erature in all its branches upon the question of our 
actual information concerning the life and teach- 



*The names of some of the early Apocrynhal Gospels, as 
preserved to us in the writings of the Fathers, are as 
follows: 1. The Gospel of the Birth of Mary. "In primitive 
times," says Hone, "there was a Gospel extant, bearing 
this name, attributed to Matthew, and received as genuine 
and authentic by several of the ancient Christian sects." 
The extant copy was preserved to us in the writings of 
Jerome, who lived in the fourth century and the early 
part of the fifth century of our era. Other versions, ap- 
parently differing somewhat from Jerome's, are quoted by 
early writers. 2. The Protevangelion, or "First Gospel," 
sometimes called the Gospel ol James, the brother of 
Jesus. From internal evidence, this Gospel must probably 
be regarded as of later date than any of those subsequently 
declared canonical, save, possibly, the Fourth. It was 
frequently alluded to in the writings of the Fathers. 3. 
The Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ, received by 
certain Gnostic sects of the second century; 4. A Second 
Gospel of the Infancy, attributed to the Apostle Thomas ; 



72 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

ings of Jesus and the character of the earliest 
Christian tradition. A tolerably clear comprehen- 
sion of this subject appears to be absolutely essen- 
tial to a true historical estimate of the beginnings 
of Christianity. 

Character and Origin of the Four Gospels. 

The four canonical Gospels are preserved to us 
in extant manuscripts of the fourth, fifth, and 
later Christian centuries. All of them were origi- 
nally written, probably, during the second century 
of our era. Their authorship is unknown, and, 
with the possible exception of the Third Gospel, 
it cannot even be conjectured with reasonable 
probability. Renan supposes that Mark and Luke 
were written in Rome and Matthew in Palestine ; 
but for these hypotheses we are obliged to rely 
mainly upon uncertain traditions, sustained or 
corrected by the known character of the docu- 
ments themselves. Tradition also asserts that the 
Fourth Gospel was composed at Ephesus, but it 

5. The Gospel of Nicodemus, probably written during the 
third century; 6. The Gospel of the Egyptians, of very 
early date; 7. The Gospel of Feter; 8. The Gospel of Paul; 
9. The Gospel of Andrew; 10. The Gospel of Apelles ; 11. The 
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. This important docu- 
ment, recently discovered by Bishop Bryennios in the 
Greek quarter of Constantinople, in a manuscript of the 
eleventh century, from internal evidence must be ad- 
judged as old or older than any of our canonical Gcspels. 
Its Chri-tology is not more developed than that of the 
Synoptics. It terms Jesui "the servant of God," and 
contains no allusion to the stories of the miraculous birth 
or to Jesus as the Son of God. ,2. The Gospel of Barna- 
bas; 13. The Gospel of Basilides, a Gnostic work of the 
second century; 14. The Gospel of Cerinthus, also a 
Gnostic writing; 15. The Gospel of the Eoionites, said to 
have been written in Aramaic, and sometimes identified 
with the Gospel of the Hebrews; 16. The Gospel of the 
Encratites; 17. The Gospel of Eve; 18. The Gospel of 
Hesychius. These, as well as the most of the following, 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 73 

presents strong internal evidence of Alexandrian 
origin or influence. Prof. Robertson Smith terms 
them all "unapostolic digests of the second cen- 
tury." In the extant Greek version of the earliest 
manuscripts, we undoubtedly possess the original 
form of these documents with but little modifica- 
tion. There is no probability that any of them 
were translated entire from the Aramaic or 
Hebrew languages. Certain memoranda in the 
Aramaic tongue, however, doubtless existed prior 
to the composition of our Gospels; and one or 
more of the so-called Apocryphal Gospels appears 
to have been written in Aramaic. Among these 
memoranda, there seems to have been a very early 
collection of the logia or sayings of Jesus, unac- 
companied, probably, by any historical data, the 
compilation of which was currently attributed to 
the Apostle Matthew. The First Gospel presents 
strong internal evidence of manufacture or com- 
position out of several primitive documents, and it 
is probable that its author incorporated a transla- 
tion of this early collection of the sayings of Jesus 

were Gnostic works. 19. The Gospel of Marcion. Some 
orthodox writers regard this as a mutilated form of our 
Third Gospel, but it was doubtless of considerably earlier 
date,— as old or older than any of our Gospels. 20. The 
Gospel of Jude; 21. The Gospel of Judas Iscariot ; 22. The 
Gospel of Matthias; 23. The Gospel of Merinthus ; 24. 
The Gospel according to the Nazarenes; 25. The Gospel 
of Perfection ; 26. The Gospel of Philip ; 27. The Gospel of 
Scythianus ; 28. The Gospel of Tatian ; 29. The Gospel of 
Thaddeus ; 30. The Gospel of Truth, used by the Valentin- 
ians, a school of the Gnostics ; 31. The Gospel of Valen- 
tinus; 32. The Gospel of Life; 33. The Gospel of Longinus. 
These and other unenumerated Gospels were all certainly 
in existence before the synod of Laodicea, 365 A.D., "the 
first Christian assembly at which the canon was made the 
subject of a special ordinance." Some of them are un- 
questionably of as early or even of earlier date than any 
of those subsequently called canonical. 



74 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

nearly or quite entire in his manuscript. Ewald, 
one of the most acute and thorough of our modern 
Biblical critics, distinguishes no less than twelve 
documents which he believes to have been worked 
up into our Synoptical Gospels. 

Divergent Traditions of the Fourth and the 

Synoptical Gospels. 

In the first three Gospels, we find many points 
of agreement, — a general concurrence as to the 
leading features in the public career of Jesus, and 
a marked similarity, often amounting to identity, 
of language, which indicates the common use, in 
part, of an earlier oral or written tradition. Be- 
tween the synopsis or concurrent testimony of the 
first three Gospels and that of the Fourth Gospel, 
however, there is a divergence so complete as often 
to amount to irreconcilable opposition. It is im- 
possible to harmonize the manifest and radical 
differences of these two traditions. All attempts 
in this direction involve the greatest violence to 
the natural dictates of the rational judgment. 

The Synoptical Gospels represent the public 
labors of Jesus to have occupied a period of only 
about one year, giving an account of but a single 
visit to Jerusalem during his ministry. The 
Fourth Gospel extends the period of his public 
ministrations to more than three years, and repre- 
sents him as frequently travelling back and forth 
between Galilee and Judea. The synoptics as- 
sume that nearly all of his miracles were wrought 
in Galilee, only one or two being assigned to his 
final visit to Judea. The Fourth Gospel expressly 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 75 

limits the number of his miracles in Galilee to 
four, and assigns nearly all the more important 
ones to the vicinity of Jerusalem. The synoptics 
assume the prevalence of the belief in obsession or 
possession by evil spirits among the Jews, — a fact 
which is abundantly confirmed by extra-Biblical 
evidence. Many of the miracles of Jesus, as 
therein reported, consist of the alleged exorcism 
of these personal demons. The Fourth Gospel 
hardly contains a reference to this current super- 
stition, and reports no miracle of this character. 
The Synoptical Gospels contain no reference to 
the miraculous transformation of water into wine 
at Cana of Galilee or to the resurrection of Laza- 
rus, though these most marvellous of all the 
wonderful works attributed to Jesus are made the 
corner-stone and key-stone of the superstructure 
of the Fourth Gospel narrative. 

More significant even than these differences is 
the marked divergence in the reports of the con- 
versations and teachings of Jesus in the two tra- 
ditions. The synoptics report his words in brief 
and forcible aphorisms, illustrated by the apt and 
striking use of the parable. The style and lan- 
guage employed are as individual and characteris- 
tic as those of Shakspere.* The chief burden and 
subject of his discourse is the explanation and 
illustration of his doctrine of the coming kingdom 
of heaven. In the Fourth Gospel, he is made to 
discourse in long, mystical disquisitions, largely 



♦Compare, for example, the parables of Jesus with those 
of Buddha or Buddhaghosa, or with those preserved to ua 
in the Talmud and the Old Testament. 



76 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

devoted to the exaltation of his own personality, 
in style and matter wholly unlike that of the 
synoptical reports. None of the characteristic 
parables of the first three Gospels appear in the 
Fourth, which, indeed, contains no proper example 
of this allegorical method of teaching. In the 
synoptics, particularly in the first two Gospels, the 
Jews appear as the kin and people of the writers, 
differing only as those who rejected the Messianic 
claims of Jesus would naturally differ from his 
disciples and followers. They are represented 
everywhere with entire naturalness. Their differ- 
ent sects, customs, and beliefs are truthfully de- 
scribed, as we know them from independent 
sources. The Fourth Gospel, on the contrary, is 
manifestly the product of one who was not himself 
a Jew. The Jews are spoken of in the third 
person, as an alien people, and in a contemptuous 
tone as children of the Evil One. The scribes, 
Sadducees, and Herodians, so often introduced in 
the synoptical narratives, do not appear at all in 
the Fourth Gospel. The natural and human Jesus 
of the synoptics is displaced by one who seems 
rather like a ghostly apparition, flitting aimlessly 
to and fro between Judea and Galilee. He is no 
longer the "Son of Man," moving naturally among 
his people, and speaking the language of their 
daily concern, but the pre-existent Logos, whose 
human parentage was an illusion, who existed 
even before the creation of the world, co-eternally 
with God himself. The representation of God as 
"our Father" and of all mankind as his children, 
so characteristic of the humane teaching of Jesus 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 77 

in the synoptics, is supplanted in the Fourth 
Gospel by the everywhere intruded assumption of 
a special and supernatural relationship between 
Jesus and the Deity. The inclusive "our Father" 
gives place to the exclusive "my Father." 

Artificial Theology of the Fourth Gospel. 

The theology of the synoptics is natural and 
simple, though embodying the current anthropo- 
morphic conceptions of the divine nature. That 
of the Fourth Gospel, on the contrary, is artificial 
and dogmatic. Its dualism is especially prominent 
and characteristic. Jesus, as the divine Logos, 
wages war against Satan and his emissaries, as 
Ormuzd against Ahriman in the Persian system. 
Faith in his supernatural character and mission is 
essential to salvation instead of conduct only, as in 
the synoptical tradition. The last supper, in the 
Fourth Gospel, loses its natural interpretation as 
the paschal feast of the Jews, and takes on a char- 
acter which prefigures its subsequent dogmatic 
importance as a Christian sacrament. To divest 
it of its Jewish characteristics, it is removed from 
the day of the paschal feast, the fourteenth of the 
month Nisan, to the preceding day; and Jesus 
himself appears as a substitute for the paschal 
lamb, sacrificed upon the anniversary of the Pass- 
over, instead of a day later, as represented in the 
synoptics. There are evidences, also, that the 
writer of the Fourth Gospel was even unac- 
quainted with the topography of Palestine, which 
strongly favors the conclusion that the Apostle 
John neither wrote nor directly inspired it. 



78 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

These considerations, which might be strength- 
ened by other internal evidence, appear to render 
it impossible for us to accept the Fourth Gospel as 
a correct representation of the life, character, or 
teachings of the Prophet of Nazareth. For a true 
historical basis, we must "search the Scriptures" of 
the synoptics ; relying mainly upon that consensus 
of testimony — those facts, ideas, and traditions 
which the three writers report in common — known 
to Biblical students as "The Triple Tradition." 
I have read with care, and with the respect due to 
so able and eminent an authority, the defence of 
the theory of the early appearance and Johannine 
authorship of the Fourth Gospel by Prof. Ezra 
Abbot ; but his arguments, though subtle, refined, 
and exceedingly ingenious, are insufficient to my 
mind to explain away these very plain and evi- 
dent discrepancies between this and the synop- 
tical tradition. 

The only portion of the Fourth Gospel narra- 
tive as presented to us in the accepted version 
of the New Testament differing from the synop- 
tics, which instantly appeals to all readers as 
bearing the impress of the Jesus of the parables 
and the Sermon on the Mount, is the story of the 
woman taken in adultery ; and this is known and 
admitted by the learned revisers of the New Tes- 
tament to have formed no part of the original ver- 
sion of this document. It is omitted from the 
oldest extant manuscripts. It is, however, quoted 
by early Christian writers from the more primi- 
tive "Gospel of the Hebrews," and doubtless con- 
stituted a part of an older tradition than that 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 79 

originally drawn upon by the writer of the Logos 
epic* 

The Patristic Literature and Early Apocryphal 
Gospels. 

A correct understanding of the nature of our 
material for the study of the life and teachings of 
Jesus necessitates a brief inquiry as to the age 
and comparative reliability of the gospel narra- 
tives. The sources of our information in this in- 
vestigation, in addition to such internal evidence 
as the documents themselves may furnish, must 
be sought in the writings of the Christian Fathers 
of the first three centuries. It is claimed by those 
who maintain an earlier authorship of the Gospels 
than the first quarter of the second century that 
they are recognized and quoted by the earliest non- 
canonical Christian writers. From a careful study 
of the patristic literature, however, it becomes 
evident that the narratives or memoranda thus 
quoted were never regarded as sacred Scripture in 
any such sense as were the writings of the Old 
Testament. It is also clear, upon examination, 
that the passages referred to are in no instance 
exact and literal excerpts from any extant manu- 
scripts of our Gospels. Previous to the last quarter 
of the second century, moreover, no one of the 
canonical Gospels is identified in the writings of 
the Fathers by the titles now prefixed to them : so 
that, even were the alleged quotations in complete 

*Renan, speaking of the irreconcilable difference be- 
tween the Fourth Gospel and the synoptics, declares that 
he would "stake his future salvation upon it without the 
slightest hesitation."— Recollections of my Youth, by Er- 
nest Renan. 



80 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

agreement, it would be impossible to determine 
with certainty whether the excerpts were taken 
from our Gospels or from other documents whose 
language was in part identical with them. 

Certain non-canonical writings, on the other 
hand, were undoubtedly extant, and were quoted 
by their titles before any of the canonical Gospels 
were so identified. One of the earliest of these 
writings was the "Gospel of the Hebrews," frag- 
ments of which have been preserved to us in the 
writings of the Fathers recently collected and col- 
.ated by Dr. Nicholson. The "Gospel of the In- 
fancy," preserved to us among other of the so- 
called "apocryphal" writings, was also so quoted at 
a very early period, and was accepted by a Gnostic 
sect of the second century as of equal authority 
and authenticity with our Fourth Gospel. Beside 
the writings of this character which we still pos- 
sess, many others were doubtless in existence 
which are now lost. In support of this fact, in- 
deed, we have the testimony of the New Testa- 
ment itself. The writer of the Third Gospel 
declares : "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand 
to set forth in order a declaration of those things 
which are most surely believed among us, . . . it 
seemed good to me also, having had perfect under- 
standing of all things from the very first, to write 
unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus." 

Besides forty or more primitive Gospels, the most 
of them known to us by their titles, there were 
also extant at a very early day a vast number of 
Epistles attributed to the apostles and early Fath- 
ers of the Church, together with such documents 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 81 

as the Acts of Peter, the Acts of Paul, the Acts of 
Andrew, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, the Reve- 
lations, respectively, of Peter, Paul, Bartholomew, 
Cerinthus, Stephen, Thomas, Moses, and Esdras, 
the sibylline oracles, and the Epistle of Christ to 
Abgarus, King of Edessa, and the reply thereto. 
Many of these documents are quoted as genuine 
and authoritative in the same writings of the 
Fathers from which are derived the supposed evi- 
dences of the early existence of our Gospels. 
Some of them are now known to be spurious. 
Others are doubtless genuine. A number of these 
extant writings have been published together as 
the Apocryphal New Testament, constituting, as 
affirmed by William Wake, the late Archbishop 
of Canterbury, "a complete collection of the most 
primitive antiquity, for about a hundred and fifty 
years after Christ." Whatever may be the ad- 
judged value or worthlessness of this extensive lit- 
erature in other respects, it is important, as testify- 
ing to the universal belief in the historical verity 
of Jesus of Nazareth during the earliest Christian 
centuries. 

The Probable Age of the Canonical Gospels. 

In regard to the testimony of the early Fathers 
of the Church, as bearing upon the probable age 
of the canonical Gospels, Prof. Davidson * asserts 
that "Papias (150 A.D.) knew nothing, so far as 
we can learn, of a New Testament canon. . . . He 
neither felt the want, nor knew the existence, of 

* The New Testament Canon. By Samuel Davidson, 
D.D., LL.D. See also article in Encyclopaedia Britannica. 



82 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

inspired Gospels. . . . Justin Martyr's canon (150 
A.D.), so far as divine authority and inspiration 
are concerned, was the Old Testament. ... In his 
time, none of our Gospels had been canonized, not 
even the synoptics, if, indeed, he knew them all. 
Oral tradition was the chief fountain of Christian 
knowledge." Clement of Rome, the earliest of the 
Christian writers outside of the New Testament, 
quotes freely and frequently from the Old Testa- 
ment and from other writings, probably apocry- 
phal books now lost. His Epistle to the Corin- 
thians, generally recognized as genuine, contains no 
quotation from the New Testament. It alludes, 
however, to certain "words of Jesus, our Lord," 
which are nowhere to be found in our canonical 
writings, and which must have been derived from 
lost Gospels or from oral tradition : "Remember 
the words of Jesus, our Lord, for he said: Woe 
unto that man. It were good for him if he had 
not been born, rather than that he should offend 
one of mine elect. It were better for him that a 
mill-stone were hanged about him, and he cast 
into the sea, than that he should pervert one of 
mine elect." * The superficial verbal resemblance 
of this passage to a familiar New Testament quo- 
tation, and also its notable variations therefrom, 
are evident at a glance. The so-called Clementine 
Homilies and Recognitions, documents of doubt- 
ful date and authorship, contain no New Testa- 
ment quotations, or passages claimed to be such. 
The Apostolic Canons and Constitutions, formerly 

♦The Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians may be found 
entire in the recently published Christian Literature 
Primer, No. I., "The Apostolic Fathers." 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 83 

attributed to Clement, are now known to be of 
much later date, probably as late as the sixth cen- 
tury. 

There are several extant versions of epistles 
ascribed to Ignatius of Antioch, who suffered mar- 
tyrdom, as alleged, about 116 A.D. They are, 
however, of doubtful authenticity /■ The shorter 
and more probably genuine collection contains a 
few quotations which bear some resemblance to 
New Testament passages ; but the language is not 
wholly identical with that of the Gospels, and no 
claim is made by the author that they are quoted 
therefrom. The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philip- 
pians, generally conceded to be genuine, contains 
numerous passages which conservative apologists 
regard as quotations from the canonical Gospels. 
In every instance, however, there are obvious devi- 
ations from the New Testament phraseology. A 
few instances will enable the reader to compare 
and judge for himself : — 

"Judge not, that ye be not judged ; forgive, and 
it shall be forgiven you ; be pitiful, that ye may 
be pitied; for with the measure that ye mete 
withal, it shall be measured to you again. . . . 

"Not rendering evil for evil, nor railing for rail- 
ing 

"Blessed are the poor, and they that are perse- 
cuted for righteousness* sake ; for theirs is the king- 
dom of God." 

These passages, like those contained in the first 
chapter of the recently published Teaching of the 
Twelve Apostles, present satisfactory evidence of 
the existence of a very early tradition, in many 



84: A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

respects similar to that embodied in our Gospels ; 
but the manifest differences in language, together 
with the fact that they are nowhere referred to the 
books of the New Testament, forbid us to receive 
them as quotations therefrom. 

Justin, who suffered martyrdom in the year 167 
A.D., evidently knew nothing of our Gospels, 
though he quotes from certain Memoirs of the 
Apostles, of uncertain authorship and contents. 
The only genealogy of Jesus which he recognizes 
is traced through the Virgin Mary, whereas the 
genealogies of Matthew and Luke are both traced 
through Joseph. The only writing of the New 
Testament certainly identified by him is the Apoc- 
alypse, which he attributes to "a certain man 
whose name was John, one of the apostles of 
Christ, who prophesied by a revelation made to 
him." Unlike Papias, however, and the earlier 
Fathers, whose reliance was placed mainly on oral 
tradition, Justin evidently depends upon writings 
which he deems authoritative, and which con- 
tained much that our Gospels present, in a slightly 
modified form. His account of the occasion of 
the alleged birth of Jesus in Bethlehem agrees, in 
the main, with that of the Third Gospel, and ig- 
nores the totally irreconcilable tradition of the 
First Gospel. It differs from Luke, however, in 
representing Jesus to have been born in "a cave 
near the village," instead of in a manger near the 
inn in Bethlehem. This tradition is also preserved 
in some of the Apocryphal Gospels, but in none of 
those declared canonical. A comparison of many 
parallel passages from the writings of Justin and 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 85 

our Gospels, made by the author of Supernatural 
Religion, demonstrates that Justin's version is 
almost always the terser and more abbreviated, 
which indicates that he drew probably from a 
more primitive tradition than that of the canoni- 
cal Gospels.* In the writings of Hegisippus, a 
contemporary of Justin, there are a few similar 
verbal resemblances to the language of the New 
Testament. In no instance, however, is there 
absolute identity of expression. 

Papias, bishop of Hieropolis, in Phrygia, during 
the first half of the second century, who died 
about 167 A.D., aud who wrote, probably, about 
the middle of the century, was the first to mention 
a tradition that Mark and Matthew composed 
accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus. We 
have already quoted the opinion of Dr. Davidson 
that he knew nothing of inspired Gospels or of a 
New Testament canon. It is evident also, from 
his descriptions, that he could not have known 
our First and Second Gospels as at present consti- 
tuted. The writing of Mark, as described by 
him, was an Ebionitic document, more like the 
pseudo-Clementine Homilies than like our Gospel ; 
and that of Matthew he asserts to have been 
written in Aramaic, whereas the original of our 
First Gospel was undoubtedly written in Greek. 
The writing known to Papias was probably the 
Logia, or record of the teachings of Jesus, ascribed 

* Dr. Ezra Abbot argues learnedly tbat our G-ospels, and 
especially the Fourth, were known to Justin Martyr. His 
arguments, however, do not appear conclusive. The nu- 
merous alleged resemblances to the Fourth Gospel in Jus- 
tin's writings are more reasonably accounted for on the 
supposition of his acquaintance with the writings of Thilo. 



86 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

to Matthew, or some similar primitive document 
which may have served as the basis, in part, of 
our First Gospel. Papias placed little reliance on 
these writings, whatever they may have been. 
"I held," he says, "that what was to be derived 
from books did not profit me as that from the 
living and abiding voice." 

The limits of this discussion forbid a detailed 
examination of all the passages which throw light 
upon the questions of the age and authenticity of 
the canonical Gospels. The author of Supernat- 
ural Religion, whose treatment of this subject is 
most thorough and exhaustive, and whose facts 
have never been successfully impugned, has placed 
side by side, in the original Greek, all the excerpts 
from the writings of the Fathers supposed to bear 
upon this question, with the corresponding New 
Testament passages. We may safely adopt, as 
our own, his conclusions : "After having exhausted 
the literature and testimony bearing on the point, 
we have not found a single distinct trace of any 
one of those Gospels during the first century and 
a half after the birth of Jesus. Only once during 
the whole of that period do we find any tradition 
even that any one of our Evangelists composed 
any gospel at all, and that tradition, so far from 
favoring our synoptics, is fatal to the claims of 
the First and the Second. . . . There is no other 
reference during the period to any writing of 
Matthew or Mark, and no mention at all of any 
writing ascribed to Luke. . . . Any argument for 
the mere existence of our synoptics, based upon 
their supposed rejection by heretical leaders or 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION b7 

sects, has the inevitable disadvantage that the 
very testimony which would show their existence 
would oppose their authenticity. There is no evi- 
dence of their use, however, by heretical leaders, 
and no direct reference to them by any writer, 
heretical or orthodox." 

The Earliest References to the Four Gospels. 

Irenseus, bishop of Lyons in Gaul from 178 to 
200 A.D., was the real founder of the Christian 
canon. He was the first to use our four Gospels 
exclusively. He also accepted the Acts of the 
Apostles, thirteen Epistles of Paul (rejecting 
Hebrews), the first Epistle of John, and the 
Apocalypse. Some of the remaining books of 
the New Testament he published in an appendix 
as of less authority, and some he ignored entirely. 
Irenseus thus explains why he accepted the four 
Gospels and no others : — 

"It is not possible that the Gospels can be 
either more or fewer in number than they are. 
For, since there are four quarters of the earth in 
which we live and four universal winds, while the 
Church is scattered throughout all the world, and 
the 'pillar and ground' of the Church is the gospel 
and the spirit of life, it is fitting that she should 
have four pillars breathing out immortality on 
every side and vivifying men afresh. . . . There- 
fore, the Gospels are in accord with these things. 
. . . For the living creatures are quadriform, and 
the gospel is quadriform. . . . These things being 
so, all who destroy the form of the gospel are 
vain, unlearned, and audacious, — those, I mean, 



88 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

who represent the aspects of the gospel as being 
either more in number than as aforesaid, or, on 
the other hand, fewer." The argument is cer- 
tainly a remarkable, if not a convincing, one ! 

The Canon of Muratori, of uncertain date, but 
believed by conservative scholars to have been 
contemporary with the writings of Irenaeus, also 
recognizes the four Gospels, and no others. Clem- 
ent of Alexandria, Tertullian, and the Christian 
writers of the third century generally did likewise, 
though they differed greatly among themselves as 
to the authenticity of other books afterward pro- 
nounced canonical. The four Gospels are also 
found in the ancient Syriac version of the New 
Testament, known as the Peshito, which Dr. Ezra 
Abbot* assigns to the latter part of the second 
century ; and they were probably current in North 
Africa about this time, as is evidenced by their ex- 
istence in the old Latin version. The genuineness 
of the Fourth Gospel, however, was still denied by 
a considerable section of the Christian Church, who 
are mentioned, and of course condemned, by Ire- 
naeus and other writers for their heresy. Epipha- 
nius calls them, in contempt, 'Aloyoi, — a term 
which has the double meaning of "deniers of the 
Logos" and "men without reason." 

The rational conclusion upon the whole matter 
appears to be that the four canonical Gospels became 
generally recognized as exclusively authoritative 

* Dr. Abbot quotes approvingly from Norton's Genuine- 
ness of the Gospels the opinion that at least sixty thousand 
copies of our Gospels were extant during the last quarter 
of the second century ; but, since not a single copy of thif 
period has descended to us, we may safely regard the opin- 
ion as baseless and extravagant. 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 89 

in orthodox circles during the last quarter of the 
second century. Though we have no positive 
evidence of their existence before this time, it is 
reasonable to presume that they were compiled, 
and existed pretty nearly in their present shape, 
some years previous to their general acceptance, 
having originally been used by different and 
widely separated communities, and, therefore, on 
account of their local use and origin, not being 
generally known. At the same time, there were 
other Gospels, some of them of earlier origin, 
which were similarly regarded as authoritative by 
certain sections of the Church, though neither 
these nor our canonical Gospels were at first 
looked upon as sacred or inspired writings like 
the Old Testament, or even as of equal value with 
oral tradition. None of them probably existed 
during the lifetime of any of the Apostles, nor 
can be traced with certainty to their personal 
influence or inspiration. 

From the general consent of the tradition pre- 
served in the first three Gospels, and its agree- 
ment, in the main, with the information trans- 
mitted to us from other sources, such as the 
primitive Gospel of the Hebrews and the Teach- 
ing of the Twelve Apostles, we may conclude that 
the main features of the picture of the life and 
teachings of Jesus which they present to us, when 
freed from its evident mythical accretions, may be 
accepted as historically trustworthy. The numer- 
ous though minor differences in the synoptical 
narratives which forbid the conception of collusion 
between their authors, and the consequent rational 



90 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

probability that they originated in diverse locali- 
ties, and reported a generally prevalent and uni- 
versally accepted tradition, renders them in the 
main reliable, though anonymous, witnesses. Yet 
we must admit, in all candor, with a recent able 
writer,* that we cannot affirm, with absolute 
certainty, of any single word attributed to Jesus 
that he spoke it exactly as recorded. With the 
author of The Cradle of the Christ, we may recog- 
nize the fact that the features of the historical 
Jesus have been so obscured by legendary accre- 
tions, which enter into the popular evangelical 
conception of the ideal Christ, that it is a problem 
for the nicest and most accurate critical analysis 
to separate the one from the other, and thereby 
reveal the truth of history. Fortunately, however, 
the accurate scholarship of the present generation 
has furnished us with a rational clew to the legen- 
dary labyrinth of the Gospels. 

The Testimony of Josephus and the Pagan His- 
torians. 

Of contemporaneous references to Jesus, as has 
been remarked, there exists not a single one. 
Josephus, the Jewish historian, writing at about 
the close of the first century, possibly alludes to 
him in a passage where he is reported as referring 
to "James, the brother of Jesus, the so-called 
Christ." The longer passage, written in the tone 
of a Christian believer, in strong contrast with 
every other portion of the writings of Josephus, is 
now admitted by all candid critics, whether of the 
*Rev. John W. Chadwick, in The Bible of Today. 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 91 

orthodox or the liberal faith, to be an interpola- 
tion. Josephus, however, gives us an interesting 
account of the character, preaching, and death of 
John the Baptist in passages of unquestioned 
authenticity, tending to confirm the impressions of 
that remarkable man obtained from the glimpses 
of him afforded by the gospel narratives, and 
thus, indirectly, to confirm the general truth of 
the Christian tradition. 

The earliest references to Jesus in the writings 
of the Roman historians date from the early part 
of the second century, and are exceedingly brief 
and unsatisfactory, tending only to confirm the 
facts of his existence and of his tragical death. 
Suetonius alludes to him as "one Chrestus, a Jew, 
who stirred up tumults in Rome" at the time of 
the Emperor Claudius. A longer passage from 
Tacitus,* of doubtful authenticity, but generally 
accepted as genuine by Christian historians, adds 
but little to our information, and is valuable only 
as confirmation of the general belief of the period 
in the existence of Jesus as an historical personage. 
The younger Pliny, about 104 A.D., writes from 
Bithynia, of which province he was the Roman 
governor, an interesting account of the Christians 
who resided in that neighborhood, but adds noth- 
ing to our knowledge of the life and work of 
Jesus.f 

We must turn then to the Synoptical Gospels as 

•Tacitus speaks of the Jews as a people "without relig- 
ion," and regards Christianity as exitiabilis superstitio, — 
"a miserable superstition." He says that Jesus was "exe- 
cuted, in the reign of Tiberias, by the procurator, Pontius 
Pilate," thus confirming the gospel narrative. 

t He speaks of Christianity as prava et immodica super- 
stitio. 



92 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

our only reliable source of information concerning 
the religion of Jesus. We may recognize the 
probability that the author of the Fourth Gospel 
built up his doctrinal system around an extant 
local tradition of the life of Jesus, differing in 
some respects from that of the synoptics, and in 
others confirming the testimony of the first three 
Gospels. The additional features, however, which 
constitute the main part of this Gospel, for reasons 
already given, we cannot regard as trustworthy. 
To the Epistles of Paul, we may go for a history 
of the remarkable development of doctrine and 
expansion of the universalizing tendencies in the 
new religion which occurred under his leadership 
and inspiration, to the Apostolic Fathers for the 
succeeding phase of the growing faith, and to 
the Christian writers, the Gnostics, and the con- 
temporary pagan historians and scholars of later 
periods, for its subsequent development. 

The Relative Age and Tendencies of the Canoni- 
cal Gospels. 

Concerning the relative age, purport, and relia- 
bility of the Gospels, widely different views have 
prevailed in the past, and still prevail, among 
Biblical scholars. The most rational conclusion 
appears to be that which regards Mark, our Second 
Gospel, as the earliest in composition, Matthew 
the second, and, but little later in time, Luke the 
third, and John, or the Fourth Gospel, the last in 
the order of time. Those critics who consider 
that the exaltation of the personality of Jesus, 
and the more frequent use of the term, "the Son 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 93 

of God," in Mark, indicate a later development of 
Christology, would place Matthew before Mark in 
chronological order, as does Keim.* Those who 
regard Luke as merely an expansion of Marcion's 
Gospel would place the Third Gospel before either 
Mark or Matthew. This view is adopted by 
Waite, Keeler, and other recent liberal writers. 
The arguments in favor of the priority of Mark, 
presented by Dr. E. A. Abbott, the writer of the 
article on the Gospels in the Encyclopedia Bri- 
tannica, by Renan, and other able and competent 
critics, appear to me, however, to be conclusive 
and unanswerable. Dr. Abbott regards this view 
as the most satisfactorily demonstrated proposition 
in New Testament controversy. 

The principal reasons for accepting the priority 
of Mark may thus be briefly stated : — 

1. Its style is more crude and primitive than 
that of either of the other canonical Gospels. Its 
Greek is more corrupt. It reports certain of the 
sayings of Jesus in the original Aramaic in which 
they were spoken. It was written probably by a 
Jewish Christian, of no great pretensions to schol- 
arship, but familiar with both the Greek and the 
Aramaic languages. 

2. It is the shortest and least systematic in its 
arrangement of all the biographies of Jesus. It 
contains only twenty-four verses not also found in 
Matthew and Luke. This would naturally be the 
fact, if the last-named Gospels were written later, 
using either Mark, or the material from which 

* The History of Jesus of Nazara, by Prof. Theodor 
Keim,— one of the most valuable and interesting historical 
Btudies of the New Testament period. 



94 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

Mark was compiled, as a basis. The later writers 
would naturally use much of the material of the ear- 
lier, adding to it such facts or modifications of these 
original statements as they should deem important. 

3. Luke and Mark contain matter in common 
which is not found in Matthew; Matthew and 
Mark also contain matter in common not found in 
Luke ; but Matthew and Luke contain no matter 
in common which is not also found in a slightly 
modified form in Mark. This condition of affairs 
is hardly explainable upon any theory save that 
of the priority of Mark. 

4. The supernatural element is less developed in 
Mark than in either of the other Gospels. The 
stories of the miraculous birth are wholly wanting, 
and also the story of the resurrection and ascen- 
sion ; the final verses of the concluding chapter not 
being found in the earliest manuscripts, and being, 
doubtless, a later addition by a different author. 

5. The term "Son of God," as applied to Jesus 
in the Second Gospel, is not, as some assume, an 
evidence of developed Christology, but the con- 
trary. It was the common designation of the 
members of the "kingdom of God," the regener- 
ate Jewish state. It is used in this natural sense 
in the Fourth Gospel, in some of the Epistles, 
and in early Hebrew writings.* "The genesis of 
Jesus as Son of God," says Prof. Allen, "precedes 
his genesis as the Messiah of the Jews." f 



•Notably, in the writings of Philo, of earlier date than 
any of the New Testament literamre. 

t Christian History, by Joseph Henry Allen, Professor in 
Cornell University, late lecturer in the Harvard Divinity 
School. 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 95 

The Gospels are all what are known to scholars 
as "tendency writings" ; that is to say, they have 
each some ulterior motive and object beyond that 
of making a clear and succinct statement of his- 
torical truth. Thus, the writer of Mark aims, 
above all, to exalt and magnify the human per- 
sonality of Jesus. The tradition which refers its 
authorship to a personal follower of the Apostle 
Peter is significant and not improbable. Its char- 
acter is such as we would naturally anticipate, if 
inspired by contact with one who had seen and 
known the Master. 

The writer of the First Gospel (Matthew) aims 
to present Jesus in the character of the Messiah 
of the Jews, fulfilling the alleged Messianic proph- 
ecies of the Old Testament. Its style of compo- 
sition is less natural and more mechanical than 
that of Mark. It presents distinct evidences of 
manufacture, and the free use of older documents 
which are apparently wrought into its structure 
with little alteration. Some of them even embody 
contradictory traditions, as the genealogy of Jesus, 
which names Joseph as his father, and the incon- 
sistent birth-story of the early chapters. The 
short sentences and aphorisms scattered through 
the Second and Third Gospels are collected into 
the "Sermon on the Mount," in Matthew. The 
story of the birth of Jesus and the reports of his 
public career are arranged with special reference 
to the fulfilment of Messianic prophecies. 

The author of the Third Gospel presents Jesus 
as the Saviour of both Jews and Gentiles, empha- 
sizing his relation toward the latter. He traces the 



96 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

genealogy of Jesus not only to Abraham, the father 
of the Hebrews, as in Matthew, but back of him to 
Adam, the father of the human race. He also re- 
lates the story of the healing of the Syro-Phoenician 
woman and the parable of the good Samaritan, 
illustrative of the universal or Pauline tendency of 
this Gospel. He makes Jesus send out not only the 
twelve apostles to the twelve tribes of Israel, as 
in Mark and in Matthew, but also seventy others, 
to every nation of the earth. The style of the 
Third Gospel is more finished and elegant, and its 
contents are more orderly in their arrangement 
than either the First or the Second. 

The writer of the Fourth Gospel presents Jesus 
as the eternally existent, incarnate Logos, the 
maker of the world, and its supernatural re- 
deemer. To this end, he omits the birth-stories 
as unnecessary to his purpose, and completely 
subordinates historical accuracy. A ghostly ap- 
parition, exalting his own spiritual office and su- 
pernatural power, and placing supreme emphasis 
on dogmatic statements of truth, takes the place 
of the living man, calling his fellow-men to salva- 
tion through righteousness. 

In their quotations from the Old Testament, the 
gospel writers most frequently make use of the Sep- 
tuagint version, as would be natural in a Greek writ- 
ing. Mark and Matthew, however, sometimes vary 
from the renderings of the Septuagint, making, ap- 
parently, a direct translation from some extant 
Aramaic version of the Scriptures, either oral or 
written. Mark's renderings of Scriptural passages 
are freer and less literal than those of Matthew. 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 97 

Bearing in mind the nature of these, our only 
sources of information concerning the life and 
teachings of the Nazarene Prophet, we will at- 
tempt hereafter to draw therefrom a just and true 
conception of his work, his doctrine, and his per- 
sonality. If, haply, beneath the legendary accre- 
tions of an unscientific age and an uncritical 
people, through the false lights of a tendency lit- 
erature, the composition of which was instigated 
by other aims than that of historical accuracy, 
we shall nevertheless be able to discover the feat- 
ures of a man in all respects like unto such as we 
are, but with a soul on fire with a righteous and 
unselfish purpose to elevate and save his fellow- 
men, — then, in the satisfaction and encouragement 
of this discovery, we need not repine at the vanish- 
ing of a god. 



IV. 

THEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE RE- 
LIGION OF JESUS. 

It is our purpose, in this and the succeeding 
lecture, to give as clear and distinct a presentation 
as possible of the salient points in the life and 
teachings of Jesus. As has already been fore- 
shadowed, our chief, I may almost say our sole, 
reliance will be placed upon the Synoptic Gospels, 
especially upon that consensus of statement known 
as the Triple Tradition. Next to that, we shall 
accept as most reliable the separate statements of 
Mark and Matthew, and, after them, of Luke. 
The Fourth Gospel will be deemed of value to us 
only in so far as it confirms the synoptical tradi- 
tion in certain particulars, and also in so far as it 
throws light upon the question of the natural 
growth of Christian doctrine, and of the mythical 
and miraculous legends which gathered around 
the human life of the founder of Christianity, 
as they have also gathered around and partially 
obscured the lives of other religious teachers. 
Omitting this portion of our subject for the pres- 
ent for separate treatment hereafter, all that we 
really know of the life of Jesus and of his theo- 
logical beliefs may be briefly sketched. 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS 99 

ITu historical and Unreliable Character of the 
Birth Stories. 

Of his early history, our information is extremely 
limited. He was born, doubtless, in Nazareth,* a 
small hillside town in Galilee, from three to eight 
years before the first year of our era, as at present 
improperly reckoned. Herod the Great died about 
four years before the commencement of the Chris- 
tian era; and, if the tradition, which assigns the 
birth of Jesus to his reign, can be deemed reliable, 
the question of his earlier birth is definitely set- 
tled. The exact year, however, or time of the 
year, is absolutely unknown. The earlier tradi- 
tion fixed the spring as the season of his birth. 
The final acceptance of the 25th of December, 
some centuries later, grew out of the substitution 
of the Christian festivities for the Roman Satur- 
nalia and Mithraic festivals, which occurred at the 
period of the winter solstice, and celebrated the 
triumph of the god of light in the growing day. 
This day had long been known among the Romans 
as dies natalis soils invicti, — the birthday of the 
conquering sun. 

The stories of the birth in Bethlehem are mu- 
tually contradictory and irreconcilable. They are 
not even mentioned in Mark, the oldest of the 
Gospels, or in the Fourth Gospel. They are 
alluded to nowhere in the other Gospels except in 
the contradictory accounts of the opening chapters. 
Matthew f states that the family of Joseph first 

*Mark: i., 9, 24; vi., 4; x., 47; xiv., 67; xvi., 6; Matt.: 
iv., 13; xxi., 11 ; xxvi., 71 ; Luke : iv., 16, 23, 24; xviii., 37; 
xxiii., 6, 7; xxiv., 19; John: i.,45, 46; lv., 44; xix., 19, etc. 

t Chapter ii. 



100 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

lived in Bethlehem of Judea, fled to Egypt to 
avoid the massacre of infants ordered by King 
Herod, and on their return thence chose Nazareth 
in Galilee as their home, from fear of Archelaus, 
the son and successor of Herod. Luke,* on the 
contrary, represents them as dwelling originally in 
Nazareth, and going to Bethlehem, the home of 
their ancestors, to be enrolled for taxation. He 
knows nothing of the journey into Egypt reported 
by Matthew. There is no historical evidence of 
any enrolment or assessment of taxes at the time 
alleged by Luke, or of any custom which required 
families to be enrolled at the home of their ances- 
tors instead of their own dwelling-place.f The 
only assessment of which we have any information 
occurring near this period took place ten or more 
years subsequent to the death of Herod, and not 
until after the deposition of Archelaus. The 
massacre of the children is also a wholly unhis- 
torical and improbable legend. Josephus, who 
willingly records everything which bears against 
the character of Herod, knows nothing of this 
occurrence. Similar stories are related of Krishna, 
one of the avatars or incarnations of the Hindu 
god Vishnu, of Moses, the Hebrew law-giver, and 
of Sargon, an Akkadian king, — all probably ref- 
erable to current solar mythologies for their 
explanations. The legend of the birth in Bethle- 
hem grew, probably, out of a misrepresentation of 
a passage in Micah (v., 2), erroneously supposed 
to be a prophecy of the Messiah. 

* Chapter ii. 

t See Josephus and later Jewish historians. Also Renan, 
Vie de Jisus, etc. 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS 101 

The Parentage and Ancestry of Jesus. 

The parents of Jesus were Joseph and Mary,* 
humble Galilean peasants. Except in the contra- 
dictory legends of Matthew and Luke, and in the 
still more extravagant and incredible stories of 
the Apocryphal Gospels, we have no confirmation 
of any contemporary belief in the miraculous birth 
of a virgin. This story conflicts with the genealo- 
gies contained in these early chapters of the First 
and Third Gospels, which trace the lineage of 
Jesus through Joseph as his natural father. The 
Nazarenes, or Ebionites, — a very early sect of 
Jewish Christians, who numbered among them- 
selves the descendants of the family of Jesus, — 
rejected this legend, which doubtless grew out of 
the misinterpretation of an Old Testament text.f 

Joseph and Mary probably had a considerable 
family of children, the brothers and sisters of 
Jesus, % — a fact frequently recognized by the 
Evangelists, and also by the writers of the Apoc- 
ryphal Gospels. James, the brother of Jesus, 
subsequently became a recognized leader of the 
.Nazarenes, or Jewish sect of Christians. Some 
early writers suppose Joseph to have been a 
widower with children before his marriage with 
Mary; others, that the brothers and sisters of 
Jesus were all younger than himself. But these 
suppositions are wholly conjectural: we really 
know nothing in regard to the matter. 

•Matt.: i.,16; xiii.,55; Luke: iii., 23: i v., 22, etc. 

t Isaiah vii, 14. The word mistranslated "virgin" means 
literally "young woman." The text has really no Messi- 
anic significance or reference to any event in the remote 
future. See Kxi<men, Bible for Learners, etc. 

JMark vi.,3, etc. 



102 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

We have no reliable evidence that Jesus bore 
any relationship to David or the royal line of 
Israel. His birth and residence in Galilee, out of 
the region allotted to the tribe to which David 
and Solomon belonged, would tend to discredit 
this tradition, which doubtless grew up after the 
r6le of the Jewish Messiah had been assigned to 
Jesus. In the Triple Tradition, indeed, he appears 
expressly to disclaim this ancestry, arguing in 
favor of his own Messianic pretensions that, since 
David called the Messiah his Lord, he could not 
therefore be his son or descendant.* 

Bis Early liif e and Occupations. 

The father of Jesus was a carpenter; and early 
traditions, both of the canonical and Apocryphal 
Gospels, represent Jesus as working with him at 
his trade, f With the single exception of the story 
of his contest with the rabbis in the temple, 
recorded in the Third Gospel, J which reminds us 
of a similar legend in the life of Buddha, we have 
absolutely no reliable tradition of his early life. 
The early maturity of Jewish youth makes this 
legend not wholly improbable, though it would 
appear more reasonable to assign the locality of 
the occurrence, if it ever happened, to some Gali- 
lean synagogue, rather than to the temple at 
Jerusalem. At the synagogue and the schools 
connected therewith, Jesus was doubtless in- 
structed in the Law and the Prophets, according 
to the uncritical methods of interpretation then in 

*Markxii., 35-37; Matt, xxii., 41-46; Luke xx„ 41-44. 
t Mark vi., 3, etc. t Luke ii., 41-52. 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS 103 

vogue ; and here also he may have learned some- 
thing of the disputations of the rabbis of the 
different Pharisaical schools. There is no evi- 
dence, however, that he received any general or 
secular education, or that he knew any language 
save his native Syro-Chaldaic tongue. 

The Relations of Jesus with John the Baptist. 

The oldest Gospel opens with a brief account of 
his conversion and baptism by John the Baptist, 
an episode in his life which is confirmed in the 
triple tradition, as well as by the character of his 
subsequent teaching, and may be accepted as his- 
torical.* The stories of the Third Gospel con- 
cerning the birth of John the Baptist, and the 
assumption of his relationship to Jesus, f must, 
however, be rejected, — not merely because of their 
miraculous implications, but because they are irrec- 
oncilable with the more reliable account of the 
later relations of John and Jesus contained in the 
synoptics. The tradition that John recognized 
Jesus at the time of his baptism as one greater 
than himself — as the Messiah of the JewsJ — is 
wholly discredited by the consenting testimony of 
the synoptical writers. If these legends had had 
any foundation in fact, John, when in prison, 
would never have had occasion to send his dis- 
ciples to Jesus with the question, "Art thou he 
who should come, or do we look for another ?" § 

We must believe that Jesus was profoundly im- 
pressed by the teaching of this remarkable man. 

♦Mark i., 1-11; compare Matt, iii., 1-17; Luke iii., 1-22. 
t Luke 1. t Matt, iii., 14, 15, etc. 

§Matt. xi., 2-6; Luke vi., 18-23. 



104 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

His impassioned exhortations to repentance, his 
announcement of the speedy coming of the Mes- 
sianic kingdom, his stern denunciation of the Phar- 
isees and Sadducees as "a generation of vipers," 
his condemnation of riches and extortion, his 
advocacy of a simple communistic life, are all 
notably characteristic of the subsequent life and 
public teachings of the Prophet of Nazareth.* 
His initiation to discipleship by the ceremony of 
immersion, preceded by a confession of sins, to 
which Jesus himself submitted, though not admin- 
istered thereafter to others by the founder of Chris- 
tianity, was adopted by his disciples, and became 
a solemn rite of the earliest Christian commu- 
nities.f 

The public career of Jesus, according to the sy- 
noptical writers, lasted only about one year. The 
Fourth Gospel would extend this period to more 
than three years; but, brief as the former time 
appears, we have no rational option but to accept 
the necessary inference from the consenting ac- 
counts of the synoptics. It is of the theological 
or religious aspect of his teaching during this 
short period of his public labors that we propose 
now to treat, leaving its social and ethical phases 
for subsequent consideration. 

The Story of (he Temptation. 

We may infer from the legend of the tempta- 
tion that Jesus withdrew into the wilderness after 
his baptism, as was the custom of the Essenes, the 

•Matt, iii., 7-12; Luke iii., 7-18. 
t Mark i., 4 ; Luke iii., 3, et seq. 






THE RELIGION OF JESUS 105 

disciples of John the Baptist, the Buddhist monks, 
and Hindu ascetics, for a period of fasting and 
solitary meditation. That he should there be 
tempted "of Satan," and ministered unto by angels, 
as briefly reported by Mark,* was quite in concur- 
rence with the popular beliefs of his time and peo- 
ple. This general and indefinite statement of the 
oldest Gospel, confined to two brief verses, is ex- 
panded into the long and circumstantial accounts 
of the contest between Jesus and the devil, in 
eleven verses of Matthew and thirteen of Luke,f 
wherein the enemy and Saviour of mankind are 
made to quote Scripture at each other with the 
facility of modern antagonistic sectarians, the only 
evident point of superiority lying in the fact that 
Jesus has the last word, and his antagonist retires 
discomfited. The growth of the longer and less 
natural version of the story out of a possible and 
natural fact introductory to his career as a public 
teacher, and its consequent legendary and unhis- 
torical character, are too reasonable and apparent 
to require more than the simple statement of the 
record in confirmation thereof. 

It is natural to suppose that the contact of Jesus 
with the Baptist, and his subsequent solitary med- 
itations, greatly intensified certain convictions and 
impulses which had long been growing within him. 
His belief in the speedy coming of the heavenly 
kingdom — an event everywhere anticipated in the 
synoptics as about to occur in the then living gen- 
eration — dominated his thought and controlled 
his life thereafter. It involved the current concep- 

* Mark L, 12, 13. t Matt, iv., 1-11 ; Luke iv., 1-13. 



106 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

fcion,— derived, probably, from the Persian popular 
belief, — that the old order of things was to pass 
speedily away, the world was to be renovated by 
fire, and a new and eternal kingdom was to be 
established, wherein the just would live forever in 
perfect security and happiness. God himself, the 
"heavenly Father," would be the ruler of this heav- 
enly kingdom. The Messiah, or Deliverer, would 
sit at his right hand and render judgment to all 
mankind according to the deserts of their past 
lives. 

Jewish Conception of the Character of God. 

The conception of the Deity popularly held 
among the Jews at the time of Jesus was still 
strongly anthropomorphic, though less grossly so 
than that which we find exemplified in the earlier 
writings of the Old Testament. The harsher ele- 
ments in the character of Yahweh had been modi- 
fied, and the conception of his nature broadened 
and spiritualized by the experiences of the Jews 
during and subsequent to the Babylonian captivity. 
Doubtless, something of this result is due to the 
exalted spiritual conception of Ahura-Mazda held 
by the Persians, and perhaps also in some degree, 
though less evidently, to the broadening and lib- 
eralizing influence of Hellenic culture. The stern, 
jealous, tribal God of the Old Testament, resem- 
bling an Oriental despot in his character and deal- 
ings with men, had given place to one who was 
the God of all the earth, the Father of his chosen 
people, and, through their exaltation and suprem- 
acy among the nations, some time to be recognized 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS 107 

as the Father and Ruler of the world. In its lof- 
tiest phase, as illustrated in the teachings of the 
later prophets and the more enlightened of the 
rabbis, the highest service of this heavenly Father 
was made to consist, not in sacrifice or ceremonial, 
but in the doing of righteousness. 

Jesus' Doctrine of the Heavenly Father. 

More fully than any of his contemporaries did 
Jesus inherit the spirit and sublime ethical pur- 
pose of the prophets. He regarded the Pharisaic 
formalism of the times as superficial and displeas- 
ing to the heavenly Father, and sought to bring 
his people to the heavenly kingdom by stimulating 
them to live righteous and true lives. He believed 
firmly in the special, watchful providence of God. 
Yahweh, in his thought, had a loving, personal 
care over all his children. Not even a sparrow 
could fall to the ground without his notice. He 
dealt blessings upon all with an even hand. He 
made his sun to rise upon the evil and upon the 
good alike: he sent his rain upon the just and 
upon the unjust. Whatever of estrangement there 
was between men and the heavenly Father was 
due, therefore, not to the harshness and severity of 
his government, but solely to the wickedness or 
wilful perversity of man. 

The Character and Efficacy of Prayer. 

The God of Jesus is omniscient, knowing all 
human needs without man's solicitation. Yet he 
delights to hear and answer the prayer of faith. 
Whatever is asked of him in a childlike and sub- 



108 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

missive spirit, in a spirit of utter self-abnegation 
and trust, he will grant, though it involve such a 
physical miracle as the removal of a mountain. 
Yet, though Jesus held this perfect faith that the 
Father would answer the sincere prayer of a trust- 
ful heart, the long prayers of the Pharisees in the 
synagogues and public places, their '-'much speak- 
ing" and 'wain repetition," were held by him in 
abhorrence. It was only upon the importunity of 
his disciples that he consented to give them that 
simple formula for supplication known to us as 
"the Lord's Prayer." Even this was not to be 
used in public or formal repetition. The disciples 
were commanded to retire into their closets, to 
pray in secret, that the Father who seeth in secret 
might reward them openly.* 

This habit of complete privacy in prayer, which 
he commended to his disciples, was evidently in 
accordance with his own consistent practice. He 
sent away his disciples, and ''departed into a moun- 
tain" to pray. He knelt alone in the wilderness 
and in desert places ; and only in a few short ejac- 
ulations, drawn from him as in the agony of cruci- 
fixion, do we find him giving utterance to suppli- 
cations to God in the presence of others, f The 
differentiation of modern Christianity from the re- 
ligion of Jesus is in no respect more notable than 
in its universal custom of formal praying at set 
times and in public places. 



♦Matt, vi., 5-15; compare Luke xi., 1-13, etc. See also 
Mark xi., 22-26. 

tMark: vi.,46; xiv., 32-40; Matt, xxri., 36-45; Luke : ix., 
18; xxii., 41-io, etc. 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS 109 

The Unitarianism of Jesus. 

In his thought of God there is nothing of poly- 
theistic or trinitarian implication. He accepted 
fully the lofty Unitarianism* of the Hebrew law- 
giver from whom he quotes, "Hear, O Israel, the 
Eternal our God, the Eternal is one." To this 
high and lofty One, merciful as well as just, all- 
seeing, caring for the humblest of his creatures, 
was due the love of the whole heart of man, his 
child. The conception of himself or of another as 
a Son of God in any exclusive or supernatural 
sense, of a God coming upon earth in human form, 
would have been as abhorrent and unnatural to 
Jesus as it has ever been to his people. The trini- 
tarian dogma is a belief as impossible to the true 
Israelite as any other form of polytheism or idola- 
try. In its later Christian development, it is a 
purely Aryan philosophical conception, and entered 
Christianity from other than Jewish sources. In 
this respect, there is no reason to believe that 
Jesus was anything but a Hebrew of the Hebrews, 
— "an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile." 
God alone is good, he said, rejecting the appella- 
tion "Good Master." Yet he held up the perfec- 
tions of the divine character as a model and ex- 
ample for human endeavor in that most exigent 
and lofty exhortation to noble living, — "Be ye 
therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in 
heaven is perfect." 

Jesus' Doctrine of the Future liife. 

The thought of Jesus concerning God, however, 

* It need scarcely be said that we use this word with no 
narrow or sectarian meaning. 



110 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

has another side than this attractive and winning 
one, — the side of inexorable justice and severity 
toward the wrong-doer, which is involved in his 
conception of the future life. The modern doc- 
trine of a spiritual immortality for all men is 
nowhere explicitly taught by him; nor does he 
anywhere definitely describe the state of the right- 
eous after death. We are left to infer his belief 
from the character of his allegorical descriptions, 
and from information elsewhere derived of the 
current conception of his time and people. His 
kingdom of heaven was evidently an earthly 
kingdom, — no far-away abode of the sublimated 
spirit apart from material conditions, no misty 
Nirvana like that of the Buddhists. Accepting 
the current Pharisaic notion of a future life upon 
the earth, involving the conception of a bodily 
resurrection, he believed not only in the establish- 
ment of the heavenly kingdom, with its joys in- 
effable for the righteous, but also, if we may 
accept the record, in the eternal punishment of the 
unrepentant sinner in the fires of Gehenna. Nay, 
more. He taught that the few only were destined 
for salvation and happiness. The many would 
"depart into everlasting punishment, prepared for 
the devil and his angels." The dread abode of the 
wicked is sometimes characterized as "eternal fire," 
sometimes as "outer darkness," in which there 
would be "weeping and gnashing of teeth."* 
These expressions, similar to those which we find 
in the later Egyptian inscriptions, descriptive of 

* Matt, xviii., 8, 9 ; Mark ix., 45, 46 ; compare Luke xvi., 
19-27 ; also Matt.: xx.. 16 ; xxii., 13, 14; xxiii., 34; xxv., 30, 
41-46, etc. 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS 111 

the place of future punishment, may possibly be 
regarded as strong figures to describe a condition 
of torment which would otherwise be inconceiv- 
able, though they appear to have been interpreted 
very literally by the early disciples and Fathers 
of the Church. The physical character of his 
entire conception of the life hereafter, moreover, 
would appear to discredit this more lenient inter- 
pretation. Whatever the exact nature of the 
future state of the wicked might be, it was 
evidently one of conscious, unlimited suffering in 
the thought of Jesus. I would willingly accept, if 
it were possible, the ingenious explanation of our 
Universalist friends, who interpret the teaching of 
Jesus as to the duration of this suffering as mean- 
ing "age-long," or for the length of an aeon, — a 
long, indefinite, but limited period, — but this mod- 
ification of the terrible sentence of the wicked 
from the mouth of Jesus rests solely upon the 
doubtful interpretation of a word in a language 
which he neither wrote nor spoke. In the absence 
of any explicit doctrine of ultimate restoration, 
and in view of the general consensus of opinion in 
the Church in all ages of the world, the Univer- 
salist interpretation scarcely appears rational or 
acceptable. 

The salvation of men, however, in the teaching 
of Jesus, depended upon the acceptance of no 
dogmatic standard of truth, but solely upon right- 
eous living. "Unless your righteousness exceed 
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye 
can in no wise enter into the kingdom." "This 
do" not this believe, "and ye shall be saved." 



112 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

Herein, Jesus stood upon both Jewish and rational 
ground; for it is the teaching of the highest 
ethical philosophy of the present day, as well 
as of Israel's prophets, that supreme happiness is 
possible only to those who "cease to do evil, and 
learn to do well." The popular Christian doctrine 
of a vicarious atonement and substituted righteous- 
ness has no place either in the teachings of the 
Nazarene prophet or in the ethics of Kant or 
Spencer. 

Jesus' Belief in Demoniacal Influences. 

Together with the doctrine of eternal punish- 
ment, Jesus also accepted the current superstitions 
of the existence of a personal devil, and of the 
possibility of possession or obsession by evil spir- 
its. The word "devil" is doubtless of Aryan ori- 
gin. It is not found in the Old Testament. The 
devil of the later Judaism was identified with the 
Hebrew Shethan, or Satan, a mythical personage 
who first appears in Job as one among the "sons 
of God," a trusted messenger and servant of 
Yahweh. From his early character of adversary 
or accuser, a sort of prosecuting attorney of Yah- 
weh's court, he had fallen, under the influence of 
the Persian dualism, to the position of an arch- 
enemy of God and man. His prototype, Set or 
Seth, in the Egyptian mythology, experienced a 
similar deterioration after the Persian conquest of 
Egypt. 

The alleged facts which have been held to jus- 
tify the belief in demoniacal possession, which the 
Jews brought with them from Babylon, doubtless 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS 113 

find their rational explanation in the phenomena 
common to certain nervous disorders, such as epi- 
lepsy and hysteria, which prevail in a more aggra- 
vated form among a rude, ignorant, and supersti- 
tious population than under more favorable social 
conditions. It is this class of disorders which is 
especially susceptible to the influence of a power- 
ful will, or that little comprehended but very posi- 
tive agency popularly known as hypnotism, or 
"animal magnetism.'* We shall treat this subject 
hereafter in our discussion of the mythical and 
miraculous elements in the gospel narratives. It 
is sufficient at present merely to allude to these 
facts as the probable natural basis for the belief 
honestly held by Jesus and many of his contem- 
poraries in demoniacal influences, and in the effi- 
cacy of his own power for their cure or amelio- 
ration. 

The Relation of Jesus to the Current Messianic 
Expectation. 

In the earlier part of the public career of Jesus, 
he appears to have been moved solely by the pro- 
found necessity imposed upon him by the belief in 
the speedy advent of the heavenly kingdom, and 
by his perception that the masses of his people 
were totally unprepared for this great change. He 
took up the message of John the Baptist, "The 
kingdom of heaven is at hand," and preached it 
to the common people, the despised "people of the 
land," who, neglected by the more rigorous Phari- 
saic teachers, appealed strongly to the sympathetic 
nature of the Galilean prophet. Such as these 



114 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

eagerly listened to his teaching, and "heard his 
message gladly." By parable and apt illustration, 
he described his vision of the heavenly kingdom, 
and impressed upon his hearers the duty of in- 
stant preparation in view of the immanence of the 
great change. He appears to have had little 
thought at first of the Messianic expectation as 
being fulfilled in his own person. He was the 
prophet of the heavenly kingdom, — the "Son of 
God," which meant simply the faithful citizen and 
messenger of God's kingdom. 

The people, however, full of the hope for a com- 
ing deliverer, impressed by the earnestness of his 
appeals, the depth and purity of his moral nature, 
his strong, magnetic personality, soon hailed him 
as the Messiah. The thought grew upon him. 
What if he was indeed the chosen one of Israel, 
the "anointed of Yahweh," the immediate herald 
of the coming change? When the populace 
greeted him as the Son of David, in accordance 
with the popular expectation that the Messiah 
would spring from the royal line of Israel, he at 
first questions his disciples: "But whom say ye 
that I am ?" Upon their recognition of him as the 
Messiah, he does not indeed directly repel the 
honor, but cautions them that they tell no man of 
this thing. A little later, we find that the idea has 
taken full possession of him ; for we discover him 
arguing in favor of his own Messianic pretensions 
that the Messiah cannot be the "Son of David," 
since David calls him his Lord or Master. 

At the time of his final journey to Jerusalem, 
he has become fully convinced of his Messianic 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS 115 

mission. He accepts the plaudits of the people 
during his triumphal entry into the city, and his 
subsequent bearing before and during his trial and 
crucifixion likewise attests the sincerity of his be- 
lief. It is not impossible that he expected some 
miraculous interposition to prevent the final catas- 
trophe, as would be indicated, apparently, by the 
despairing cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou 
forsaken me?" Mark, who comes nearer to the 
primitive tradition than either of the other evan- 
gelists, reports this and certain other notable ex- 
pressions of Jesus in his native Syro-Chaldaic 
tongue. This agonized expression, so natural and 
human, but so unlike the supernatural Jesus of the 
Fourth Gospel and our popular Christian concep- 
tion, could hardly have crept into the gospel nar- 
rative, unless it had some foundation in the actual 
occurrence. The writer of the First Gospel con- 
firms the tradition of Mark ; but Luke, illustrating 
an advanced development of Christology, omits 
this human cry of almost despairing agony, and 
substitutes for it the calm acceptance of the inevi- 
table in the final words, "Father, into thy hands I 
commend my spirit." The still less natural and 
more dramatic writer of the Logos epic makes Jesus 
die with the dignity and supernatural endurance of 
a God, fully self-conscious to the last, and deliber- 
ately conforming his actions on the cross to the 
fulfilment of Scripture : — 

"After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were 
now accomplished, that the Scripture might be 
fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a ves- 
sel full of vinegar ; and they filled a sponge with 



116 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his 
mouth. When Jesus, therefore, had received the 
vinegar, he said, It is finished ; and he bowed his 
head, and gave up the ghost." 

Concluding Thoughts. 

In this lecture, we have attempted, fairly, with 
no bias of preconceived opinions, to set forth the 
leading features in the teaching of Jesus on its 
theological side, as reported in the Synoptical Gos- 
pels. While recognizing the fine humanity of his 
doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the pro- 
found sincerity of all his beliefs, there is evidently 
much in this teaching which the liberal and cult- 
ured thought of modern times has forever dis- 
carded, much that bears the impress of a primi- 
tive and ignorant age and of a narrow and 
restricted intellectual environment. For us there 
is no encompassing host of demons, no personal 
prince of evil, no bodily resurrection, no eternal 
kingdom of immortals to be established upon the 
earth. If we still hold to the fatherhood and per- 
sonality of God, it is in quite a different sense 
from that embodied in the simple, anthropomor- 
phic conception of Jesus. The Messianic doctrine 
of the Jews is to us a beautiful dream, which the 
Prophet of Nazareth did not fully realize either 
according to the popular expectation or his own 
more spiritual interpretation. Not in any of these 
theological conceptions do we find the secret of the 
influence of Jesus upon the life and thought of 
later generations. 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS 117 

ing deviation in the thought of Jesus from the 
current beliefs of his time and people. Herein, at 
least, there are none of the distinctive features of 
the peculiar philosophy of Buddhism, — no hint of 
Hindu agnosticism or of the doctrine of the Nir- 
vana as the summum bonnm of human aspiration. 
The entire atmosphere of the primitive tradition 
of the synoptics, after eliminating such of its 
supernatural and mythological elements as are 
not confirmed by the consent of the three writers, 
is Hebrew, and Hebrew only. The Prophet of 
Nazareth moves naturally in the Palestine of eigh- 
teen centuries ago : he breathes its peculiar relig- 
ious and social atmosphere, and incarnates its lof- 
tiest moral and personal characteristics. Though 
transcending the ritualistic formalism of his time 
and the traditional limitations of his national 
religion, we may, nevertheless, repeat as a truth of 
history his own judgment of his relation to the 
law and religion of his people, — He came not to 
antagonize or to destroy, but to fulfil. 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE RELIGION 
OF JESUS. 

Jeans' Doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

The religion of Jesus would by no means be 
adequately viewed or comprehended in its entirety, 
if regard were had only to its technically religious 
or theological aspect. Beside its Godward look, 
its attitude toward the current supernaturalism of 
the time, its relations of consent or negation 
toward the ancient faith of his people, it had also 
its manward look, its ethical and social side. In 
entering upon a consideration of this phase of the 
thought and teaching of the Galilean prophet, we 
would completely fail to understand it, to give its 
several precepts their proper force and correct in- 
terpretation, if we neglected again, and even more 
clearly and emphatically than heretofore, to strike 
the key-note of his entire system of thought, as it 
is revealed to us in his doctrine of the kingdom of 
heaven and its speedy advent. 

In his general conception of the heavenly king- 
dom as a new spiritual and social order to be 
established on the earth, with the will of the heav- 
enly Father for its sole and perfect law, with all 



SOCIAL ASPECTS 119 

evil and hurtful conditions completely overcome 
and destroyed ; the necessity for toil obviated by 
the constant production of all necessary articles of 
food through the spontaneous fruitfulness of the 
regenerated earth; the cessation of war and con- 
flict; the destruction even of death itself by the 
complete eradication of sin through which death 
had come into the world, — Jesus did not appar- 
ently differ from many of the earnest and faithful 
followers of Judaism in his generation, among the 
different sects of the Pharisees and the "people of 
the land." Pictures of this "good time coming" 
were drawn from the older prophets, and exag- 
gerated by the glowing imagination of the hope- 
ful and faithful representatives of the faith of 
Israel. 

"It shall come to pass at the end of days that 
the mountain of Yahweh's house shall be estab- 
lished on the top of the mountains, and shall be 
exalted above the hills ; and all nations shall flow 
into it. And many nations shall go and say, Come 
ye and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, 
to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will 
teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his 
paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and 
the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. And he 
shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke 
among many peoples; and they shall beat their 
swords into ploughshares, and their spears into 
pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift up sword 
against nation, neither shall they learn war any 
more."* 

*Isaiahii.,2-4. 



120 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

In the writings of the rabbis, we find wonderful 
pictures of this heavenly kingdom. Wild animals 
are to become tame and harmless, "the lion and the 
lamb shall lie down together" ; immense bunches 
of grapes are to burden the vines ; springs of living 
water are to burst from the barren rock, as under 
the rod of Moses, at the desire of whosoever may 
thirst ; and life is to be a continual round of "de- 
light in the law of the Lord." There are many 
evidences, outside the New Testament, that this 
expectation was held by the early Christians as 
well as by the Jews. Irenaeus, writing during the 
latter part of the second century, declares that 
Papias, an earlier Christian writer, quotes from 
the memoirs of the apostles, as genuine words of 
Jesus, this saying: "The day shall come when 
each vine shall grow with ten thousand boughs, 
each bough with ten thousand branches, each 
branch with ten thousand twigs, each twig with 
ten thousand bunches, each bunch with ten thou- 
sand grapes, each grape shall yield twenty- five 
measures of wine." 

The Speedy Advent of the Heavenly Kingdom. 

The special thought of Jesus, that wherein he 
differed from many of the Jews around him, that 
which impelled him to his prophetic labor and 
which dominated and gave color to his ethical sys- 
tem, was the profound conviction that this great 
change was "at hand." * It was coming now, — in 
this generation. "There be some standing here 
which shall not taste death till they have seen the 

*MarkL,15; Matt, iii., 2, etc. 



SOCIAL ASPECTS 121 

kingdom of God come with power." Such is the 
assurance of Jesus as preserved in the oldest gos- 
pel.* "Verily I say unto you, All these things 
shall come upon this generation.'* . . . "So likewise 
ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that 
it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto 
you, This generation shall not pass till all these 
things be fulfilled." These are the words of Jesus 
as reported by Matthew, f This is the concurrent 
testimony of all the synoptical writers in many 
similar texts, derived incontestably from the prim- 
itive tradition out of which they drew their mate- 
rials for the biographies of the Galilean prophet. 
No teaching in the New Testament is so plainly 
presented or so frequently reiterated as this. It is 
inconceivable that these assurances should have 
entered into the gospel narratives, unless Jesus 
really uttered them ; for no writer of after times, 
desiring to present the claims of Jesus as an in- 
fallible teacher, could possibly have invented and 
referred to him these unfulfilled promises and pro- 
phetic utterances which by no possibility could 
ever be fulfilled, since the time plainly set for 
their accomplishment had already long since passed 
away. These assurances of Jesus are at once the 
proof of his reality as an historical personage and 
of his human fallibility and liability to error, — a 
fact of the most striking significance.^ 

♦Mark ix., 1. fMatt. xvi., 28; xxiv., 33, 34; xxiii., 36, 

etc. Compare Luke ix., 27; x., 11 ; xii., 40; xxi., 8, 32, etc. 

t The current orthodox claim of the fulfilment of these 
prophecies in the alleged phenomena of the "day of Pen- 
tecost" is wholly unsatisfactory. Apart from the want of 
evidence sufficient to establish the historical verity of 
these phenomena, they in no manner fulfil the condition/ 



122 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CH1USTIAN1 TY 
The Kingdom of Heaven described in Parables* 

Believing thus in the speedy advent of the 
heavenly kingdom, and perceiving the blindness 
and unpreparedness of his people, the overmaster- 
ing desire of Jesus was to arouse them from their 
apathy, and induce them to make clean their lives 
in preparation for the new life which awaited the 
"sons of God," — the children of the kingdom. To 
those who heard him willingly and accepted some- 
thing of his message, he explained the nature of 
this new life in apt and beautiful allegories. In 
the parable of the Sower,* he thus taught that the 
preparation for the coming kingdom was an in- 
ward process, an ethical regeneration of the soul, 
and not merely an external obedience to the 
precepts of the law.f In the parable of the mus- 
tard seed,| he presented the hopeful assurance 
that the acceptance of the kingdom, "in spirit and 
in truth," by a few humble believers, would ulti- 
mately result in the world's regeneration. In the 
parable of the tares, § he assured his disciples that 
the faithful doers of the word, though few in 
number, would be preferred to the many whc 
carelessly neglected or wilfully rejected his warn- 
ings. In the allegories of the treasure hidden in 

of the advent of the heavenly kingdom as set forth in the 
prophecies. The belief in the second advent of Christ as 
an event yet to occur, which has been common in all ages 
of the Christian Church, testifies to the admission of theo- 
logians that the New Testament prophecies are yet unful- 
filled, but fails to take cognizance of that clear and vital 
element in the prophecies which limits the period of 
their accomplishment to the then living generation. 

*Matt. xiii , 3-23; Mark iv., 3-15; Luke viii.. 5-15. 

t Compare Luke xvii.. 20, 21. 

$Matt. xiii., 31, 32; Mark iv., 30-32; Luke xiii., 18, 19. 

§ Matt, xiii., 24-30, 36-43. 



SOCIAL ASPECTS 123 

the field and of the "pearl of great price,"* he 
solemnly impressed his belief that all else was as 
nothing compared with the necessity of "seeking 
first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness." 
In the parable of the householder,! he held out 
the merciful assurance that even late repentance 
and return to righteous living would secure all the 
rewards of the kingdom, in which "the first should 
be last, and the last first." In the parable of the 
nobleman and the servants,! he illustrated the 
truth that the faithful laborer should be abun- 
dantly rewarded, while he who perceived the truth 
without laboring to spread it should be surely 
punished. 

Jesus not a Zealot. — His Doctrine of Nou-Keaist- 

auce. 

Jesus taught that the best preparation for the 
coming kingdom was to commence now to live as 
nearly as possible the ideal life of the sons of God. 
The time was short before the great change would 
take place : therefore, it was better to bear the ills 
of the present life with patience and without phys- 
ical resistance rather than increase them by foment- 
ing insurrection against the "powers that be," thus 
bringing down upon his followers the persecution 
and oppression of the government. This thought 
appears to lie at the foundation of his teaching in 
regard to the non-re3istance of evil. "Resist not 
evil," he said. "If any man smite thee on the 
right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if 

* Matt, xiii., 44-46. t Matt. xx„ 1-16. % Luke xix., 

11-27. 



124 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

any man will sue thee at the law and take away 
thy coat, let him have thy cloak also."* He for- 
bade his disciples to take with them either gold or 
staves in their journeys, f 

When his enemies sought to entrap him by 
asking whether it were lawful to render tribute 
unto Caesar, he pointed to the emperor's image and 
superscription on the current coin of the empire, 
and said, "Render unto Caesar the things that are 
Caesar's, but unto God the things that are God's." J 
In assuming this attitude toward the existing gov- 
ernment, he at once thwarted the machinations of 
his more active and violent enemies, who sought 
to identify him with the party of the Kanaim, or 
Zealots, — who taught the duty of resisting taxa- 
tion and abjuring the authority of the Romans, — 
and disappointed his more literal and patriotic 
followers, who believed that the Messiah, in his 
own person, would lead the faithful of Israel to 
overthrow and destroy the oppressor by force of 
arms, and thus re-establish the kingdom of the 
house of David. 

Jesus' Communistic Teaching. — His Exaltation 
of Poverty. 

As the kingdom of heaven was to constitute a 
sort of ideal community, where all would be equal 
before the heavenly Father, it appears also that 
Jesus and his disciples attempted to realize this 
social ideal in their intercourse with the world and 

*Matt. v., 38-41; Luke vi., 27-35. 

tSo Matt, x., 10, and Luke ix., 3. Mark, on the con- 
trary, contains an express command to take a staff with 
them (Mark vi., 8). 

tMatt. xxii., 17-22; Mark xii., 13-17; Luke xx., 21-26. 



SOCIAL ASPECTS 125 

with each other. It seems to have been a condi- 
tion of discipleship that the true believer should 
relinquish his individual property, and hold all 
things in common with his brethren. One of the 
disciples was therefore appointed the treasurer, or 
custodian of their common fund.* Not only com- 
munity of interest, but the blessedness of poverty 
appears to have been explicitly taught by the 
Galilean prophet. To the rich young man who had 
fulfilled the entire law in its spirit, loving God 
and dealing justly with his fellow-man from his 
youth up, he still further commanded that he 
should sell all that he possessed, and give the 
proceeds thereof to the poor, before he could be 
accounted a true disciple.f 

Jesus was not alone among his people in his 
abhorrence of riches and exaltation of poverty. 
The long conflicts of the Jews with foreign ene- 
mies, the destruction and spoliation of their cities 
and their sacred temple, and the later period of 
lawless violence during the reign of Herod, seem 
to have given rise among them to two diverse 
ways of regarding poverty and riches. Those who 
dwelt in the larger towns and cities — the artisans, 
tradesmen, and inheritors of the priestly office and 
its emoluments — became very frugal and saving, 
careful to obtain the greatest possible advantage 
in bargain and trade. Of this class were the 
sellers of doves and changers of money in the 
court of the temple, whom Jesus in his indigna- 
tion is said to have driven out with a whip of 

*So John xiii., 29, following a generally current tra« 
dition. 
t Matt, xix., 1&-22 ; Mark x., 17-22 ; Luke xviii., 18-24. 



126 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

small cords. Others, however, accepted their pov- 
erty as the righteous appointment of God, to rebel 
against which was impiety. Certain religious en- 
thusiasts, particularly among the Galilean peas- 
ants who believed in the speedy advent of the 
heavenly kingdom, taught that it was wrong to 
accumulate property, and that all in excess of 
one's personal needs should be given to the poor. 
In the Jerusalem Talmud is preserved an account 
of Rabbi Jeshobeb, a contemporary of Jesus, who 
gave all his property to the poor. For so doing, 
he was reproved by the celebrated teacher, Gama- 
liel, at whose feet Paul sat.* 

Less than a century later, this improvident 
mania had become so prevalent that a convention 
of rabbis, held at Usha, a town of upper Galilee, 
decreed that no one should bestow upon the poor 
more than one-fifth of all he possessed. f The 
Essenes and disciples of John the Baptist despised 
riches, commanded alms-giving and the equal dis- 
tribution or communistic possession of property. 
These sects, as well as Jesus and his disciples, 
believed that the poor would enjoy special privi- 
leges in the heavenly kingdom. Ingenious at- 
tempts have been made by Christian commenta- 
tors to soften or explain away the saying of Jesus : 
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a 
needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom 
of God." J They have even gone so far as to 
invent a Greek word, /cd/zj/lof, denned as a heavy 

•Jerusalem Talmud, tract Peak, 15, b. 
t Babylonian Talmud, tract Kethuboth, 50, a; Arachin, 
28, a. See also Renan, Vie de Jisus, p. 169, ff. 
tMarkx., 25; Matt, xix., 24; Luke xviii., 25. 



SOCIAL ASPECTS 127 

cord or rope, thus suggesting difficulty, but not 
impossibility, in the salvation of the rich. The 
word, however, is spurious, being found nowhere 
outside the fertile imaginations of its originators. 
The "needle's eye" has also been explained as the 
designation of a low gate in the city walls of 
Jerusalem, through which a camel could only pass 
by kneeling and being stripped of its load, the 
proverb being thus robbed of its terrors, and made 
to convey only the trite suggestion of the impossi- 
bility of taking worldly riches into the life beyond 
the grave. 

As a matter of fact, however, Jesus in this say- 
ing merely quoted or adapted a common Semitic 
proverb, which is found in a slightly altered form 
in the Talmud and the Koran as well as in the 
New Testament.* That his own interpretation 
was very literal appears not only from his admo- 
nition of the rich young man, but also in the par- 
able of Lazarus and the rich man : the former of 
whom reposes after death in the bosom of Abra- 
ham, for no virtue, so far as we know, save his 
poverty ; while the latter is suffering the torments 
of unquenchable fire, for no reason, so far as we 
know, save his riches.f 

In the parable of the wedding feast, also, Jesus 
appears to have taught that only the poor could 
inherit the heavenly kingdom.:): He pronounced 
blessings upon the poor and curses upon the rich.§ 
He commended his disciples to "lend, hoping for 

*See Babylonian Talmud, tract Bora Koth, 55, b; Baba 
metsia, 30, b. Koran, Sura vii. , 38. 

t Lnke xvi., 19-26. t Matt, xxii., 1-11. Compare Luke 

xiv., 12-14, 16-24. § Luke vi., 20, 24, 25. 



128 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

nothing in return." He forbade them to "lay up 
treasures upon the earth." He bade them "take 
no thought of the morrow," but live from day to 
day like the lilies of the field "which toil not." * 
He ordered them to make no provision for their 
journeys, but to solicit alms everywhere among 
those who would receive them, and to shake off 
the dust of their feet against that house which 
should refuse to entertain them.f He declared 
plainly the impossibility of at once serving God 
and Mammon 4 

The attempts to soften, discredit, or explain 
away these explicit teachings of Jesus, while their 
obvious relation to his belief in the speedy advent 
of the heavenly kingdom, constituting their only 
rational explanation, is overlooked or ignored, 
have been both ingenious and amusing. They 
stand, however, as certainly reflecting the thought 
of the Master as anything recorded in the New 
Testament. The earliest communities of Jewish 
Christians accepted these doctrines; and their 
successors derived from them the designation of 
"Ebionites," from the Hebrew Ebionim, "the 
poor," — a designation which came to be regarded 
as synonymous with the terms "saint" and "friend 
of God." 

The Pessimism of Jesus — His Views of mar- 
riage and the Family. 

It would appear from all these considerations 
that Jesus' view of existing society was essentially 

*Matt. vi., 1&-21, 28-32; Luke xii., 27-34. 
tMatt. x., 8-15 ; Mark vi., 8-11 ; Luke ix., 3-5. 
t Matt, vi., 24. 



SOCIAL ASPECTS 129 

pessimistia. The present and natural social order 
he regarded as not worth saving. Its inevitable 
burdens were to be endured while they must, in 
hope that patient endurance would speedily work 
out "a more exceeding weight of glory." 

In reference to the domestic relations, Jesus ex- 
hibited the same tendencies of thought and feel- 
ing which he manifested toward society in general. 
He declared that in the heavenly kingdom there 
would be "neither marrying nor giving in mar- 
riage." * Endeavoring to conform himself to this 
ideal condition in the midst of the existing order, 
he formed no family relations himself. He even 
withdrew from the companionship of his father's 
family, and declared that his true disciples, fol- 
lowing his example, must "forsake father and 
mother, brother and sister, husband and wife," 
and devote themselves wholly to preparation for 
the coming kingdom. His true relations, he de- 
clared, were his disciples and followers. f 

Yet we are not to suppose that his thought and 
action herein were occasioned by any deficiency of 
the natural affections. His love for little children 
was not the manifestation of a disposition natu- 
rally cold or ascetic. Of such, he declared, was the 
kingdom of God. "Whosoever shall not receive 
the kingdom of God as a little child," he affirmed, 
"he shall not enter therein." J He took little chil- 

*Matt. xxii.,30; Mark xii., 25; Luke xx., U5. According 
to another text (Matt, xix., 1C-12), he even countenanced 
self-mutilation as an alternative to marriage. 

tMatt. viii., 21, 22; x., 34-38; xix., 29; xii., 46-50; Mark 
x., 29,30; iii., 31-35; Luke ix., 59-62; xiv., 26; xviii., 29, 30; 
viii., 19-26. 

jMark x., 15; Luke xviii., 17. 



130 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

dren in his arms and blessed them, rebuking his 
disciples when they would prevent their mothers 
from bringing them into his presence.* "Take 
heed that ye despise not one of these little ones," 
was his command to his followers. He appears to 
have regarded children as representatives of that 
purity and simplicity of character and that sin- 
cerity of faith and trust which he deemed essential 
to the members of the ideal community of the 
heavenly kingdom. 

The relations of Jesus with his disciples, and 
with those families who received and entertained 
him, appear to have be9n always friendly and 
social. In this respect, certainly, he was no as- 
cetic. He dined with Pharisees and Publicans 
alike,f and was even accused by his enemies of 
being "gluttonous and a wine-bibber." Herein, he 
resembled neither the Essenes nor the disciples of 
the Baptist, who, like the Nazarites of old, were 
total abstainers, and lived on the most spare and 
frugal diet. 

His views of the sacredness of the marriage 
relation, regarded as a necessary accompaniment 
of the existing social order, were of the most exi- 
gent character. He forbade divorce save for the 
single cause of adultery ;f but he also denned 
adultery as the inward desire of the heart, which, 
if admitted literally as a sufficient cause for di- 
vorce, would perhaps open the doors as widely as is 
desired by any of our modern social reformers. § 

♦Matt, xix., 13-15; Mark x., 13, 14, 16; Luke xviii., 15, 16. 

tMatt. ix., 10-17; xi., 18, 19; Luke vii., 33, 34, 36. 

J Matt, xix., 3-9. 

§ Compare Mark x., 2-12. In this older and perhaps more 



SOCIAL ASPECTS 131 

Doubtless, his doctrine of divorce, also, can only be 
rightly estimated as it Is related to his belief in 
the speedy coming of the heavenly kingdom. 

His Views of Education and Labor. 

Jesus nowhere commends education or the sys- 
tematic cultivation of the mind. Literary or scien- 
tific attainments formed no part of his own per- 
sonal equipment, nor did he conceive of them as 
necessary or valuable to others. They were not an 
essential part of the preparation for the kingdom 
of the future, wherein all useful knowledges would 
arise in the mind spontaneously by a divine intu- 
ition. 

Opposing the acquisition of property, and ad- 
juring his disciples to live as the lilies which toil 
not, he naturally refrained from any explicit rec- 
ognition of the necessity, importance, and honor- 
ableness of labor. Incidentally, indeed, he de- 
clared that "the laborer is worthy of his hire," * — 
a principle which, carried to its logical conclusion, 
would conflict radically with every system of ser- 
vile labor. Yet he nowhere expressly recognizes, 
either in approval or condemnation, the existing 
iustitution of chattel slavery, — an institution which, 
in the subsequent evolution of society, became a 
constantly aggravated social evil. Had he given 

reliable version, the prohibition of divorce is absolute, not 
even adulcery or fornication being recognized as a legiti- 
mate cause for divorcement. This would of course deprive 
the above suggestion of all force or pertinency. 

*Luke x.,7. The connection, however, implies only the 
enunciation of the right of the disciplos to food and lodg- 
ing—the bare necessities of life— while they were prose- 
cuting their missionary labors. 



132 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

it a thought, doubtless, like the apostle who re- 
turned the fugitive Onesimus, he would have 
deemed it better to endure the evil for a time with- 
out protest rather than to interfere directly with a 
social order which was so soon to pass away. 

The Ethical Teaching of Jesus. 

The ethical teaching of Jesus finds its highest 
illustration in the Golden Rule and the collection 
of aphorisms, beatitudes, and allegorical sayings 
known as the Sermon on the Mount.* Perfection 
in practical righteousness is herein held up as the 
end and object of all human endeavors. Happi- 
ness and misery, here and hereafter, are declared 
to depend upon the character and actions of the 
individual.! By these he will be judged and 
known, as the tree is known by its fruit.J The 
teachers of religion are to be tested, not by their 
professions, but by their practical works ; and the 
people are warned against "false prophets who 
come in sheep's clothing, while inwardly they are 
as ravening wolves." 

Everywhere, the inward motive and purpose of 
the heart is regarded as the supreme test of char- 
acter rather than outward observance or appear- 
ance. It is not the act alone, but the sinful thought 
which constitutes adultery.§ Not he alone who 
kills, but he who is angry with his brother without 
a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment. || 
Gifts placed upon the altar wnile anger is in the 
heart are of no avail. "First be reconciled to thy 

* Matt, v.-rii. t Matt, vii., 16, 21, etc. $ Matt, vii., 15-20. 
§ Matt. T., 28. || Matt, v., 22. 



SOCIAL ASPECTS 133 

brother, then come and offer thy gift."* The 
formality of an oath adds nothing to the simple 
majesty of the truth. "Let your communication 
be yea, yea, nay, nay; for whatsoever is more 
than these cometh of evil." f Alms given in the 
sight of men possess no saving virtue. "When 
thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet 
before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues 
and in the streets, that they may have glory of 
men. I say unto you, They have their reward. 
But when thou doest alms, let not thy right hand 
know what thy left hand doeth : that thine alms 
may be in secret : and thy Father, who seeth in 
secret, shall reward thee openly." J A like secrecy, 
as we have seen, was commanded in prayer, as it 
was also in fasting.§ 

The honest scorn of pretence and hypocrisy 
which characterizes the teaching of Jesus, his 
virile denunciation of evil in high places, — of the 
scribes and Pharisees, who sit on the high seats in 
the synagogues and devour widows' houses, and 
for a pretence make long prayers, || — is little like 
the conventional meek and lowly Saviour of the 
current emasculated Orthodoxy of the present day, 
but resembles rather the lofty courage and fearless 
preaching of the ancient prophets, or the plain- 
speaking of the American Abolitionists, and justi- 
fies the fine conception of Thomas Hughes of the 
"manliness" of Jesus. 

Yet on his tenderer side, as illustrated in the 
beatitudes and many of the parables, there is a 

* Matt. v. , 23, 24. t Matt. v. , 33-37. $ Matt. vi. , 1-4. 

§ Matt, vi., 5, 6, 16-18. U Matt, xxiii . ; Luke xi., 37-54. 



134 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

felicity of presentation, a gentle persuasiveness 
and "sweet reasonableness," which must have 
been most winning and attractive. It contrasts 
strongly with the dry, metaphysical reasoning of 
the philosophers, appealing only to a few culti- 
vated intellects, or with the sublimated mysti- 
cism of the Brahmanical schools; and no less 
strongly with the hair-splitting logic and dog- 
matic appeal to traditional technicalities of the 
contemporary rabbis. Jesus was no philosopher; 
his simple idealism was free from the mysticism of 
the schools; he propounded no logical or deeply 
reasoned system of belief. He accepted the crude 
cosmogonical and cosmological notions of his time 
and nation without question. He taught the 
simple, strong, natural morality of an exception- 
ally fine ethical nature, fed by the nourishing 
stimulus of the Hebrew prophets. He did not 
stop to argue the question with his hearers: his 
vital words were spoken with the straightforward 
earnestness of one who stood upon the firm foun- 
dation of assured inner conviction. "He taught as 
one having authority, and not as the scribes." 

Bis Doctrine of the Forgiveness of Sins. 

Upon one point only, besides his belief in future 
punishment, he appears to have been in concur- 
rence with the dogmatic statements of modern 
Orthodoxy: he accepted, apparently, the current 
Jewish doctrine of the divine forgiveness and re- 
mission of sins,* — the natural and humane ac- 

*See Ex. xxxii., 32; Ps. lxxviii., 38; xcix., 8; ciii., 3; Jer. 
., 34; Isa. xxxiii., 34; Dan. ix., 9, etc. 



SOCIAL ASPECTS 135 

companiment of an arbitrary system of morality, 
based upon alleged revealed commandments of the 
Deity. To this he added the belief that this 
power of forgiving sins and cancelling the natural 
results thereof was committed by the Father to 
the Messiah, or " Son of Man," as his duly ap- 
pointed representative or servant.* This doctrine, 
however, in his mind, did not descend to the gross- 
ness of the modern theory of a vicarious atone- 
ment. The forgiveness of sins was conditioned, 
not upon the acceptance of any dogmatic belief or 
the substitution of an innocent victim for the 
guilty, but solely upon repentance, — an inner 
moral change in the direction of righteous living, 
attested and assured by the free and full forgive- 
ness of their enemies on the part of the sinners. f 

Modern Criticisms upon the Ethical System of 
Jesus. 

The ethical teachings of Jesus have been criti- 
cised from two quite different stand-points, which 
may be distinguished as the practical and the ideal. 
On the one hand, it is affirmed that his moral in- 
structions are unpractical and impossible to apply 
to the affairs of our every-day life, because they 
are too exclusively altruistic. Modern society, it 
is claimed, could not exist, if we were to leave evil 
unresisted, if we were to turn the other cheek to 
the smiter after having been once unjustly 
stricken, if we were to give our cloak unasked to 

•Matt, ix., 1-6, etc.; Mark iii., 29. 
fMatt. vi., 12, 14, 15; Luke vi., 37; xvii., 3, *. 



136 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

the beggar who had demanded and received our 
coat or to the thief who had stolen it. 

It appears quite evident, however, from our pre- 
vious consideration of these questions that this 
extreme altruism was not intended for application 
during a long continuance of the natural social 
order. It is due almost wholly to the erroneous 
belief of Jesus that the present order of society 
was to endure but for a day ; that a new, divine, 
and eternal order was soon to be established in its 
place. Had he looked forward to what we may 
now look back upon, — to many centuries of con- 
tinuance under the old social order, to a natural 
evolution in human affairs instead of the super- 
natural revolution which he anticipated, — his teach- 
ing might, and doubtless would, have been greatly 
modified in some of these particulars. 

Nevertheless, we have reason to be profoundly 
grateful for the vision of a perfect social order 
which is suggested by these ideal conceptions of 
the Prophet of Nazareth. It is by such visions as 
these that the world is lifted up and led onward to 
higher planes of thought and life. Like a rift in 
the clouds through which the sunlight streams, 
they gladden the hearts of men with the promise 
of diviner possibilities in the life that now is. In 
our way, we also may look forward to a higher 
order of human society to be established upon the 
earth. Each and all of us may in some manner so 
live as to hasten the period of its fulfilment. We, 
too, may pray with the disciples of the Nazarene 
that the kingdom of God may come, and his will 
be done on earth as it is in heaven. 



SOCIAL ASPECTS 137 

Prof. Francis W. Newman and other able writ- 
ers have criticised the ethical appeals of Jesus 
from quite another stand-point, — because they are 
not sufficiently altruistic in their foundation. It is 
affirmed by this class of critics that they are almost 
universally based upon self-interest instead of a 
desire to benefit society as a whole or to do right 
because it is right. Even the Golden Rale, it is 
alleged, would measure the love for the neighbor 
by the love for self. The beatitudes are each 
accompanied by some promise of selfish reward, — 
the offered attainment of some future happiness. 
The entire moral system of Jesus rests upon the 
accompanying assurance of eternal happiness in 
the heavenly kingdom for the workers of right- 
eousness, and the co-ordinate threat of eternal 
misery for those who in this life fail to accept 
the conditions of salvation. 

The most recent attempts to establish morality 
upon an assured scientific basis, however, recog- 
nize the necessity of giving due weight to the 
egoistic as well as the altruistic side of human 
action. An extreme and unqualified altruism 
would defeat the rational end of all moral action 
by speedily destroying the life or health of the 
agent. Action without regard to ends, ultimate 
or immediate, is everywhere properly regarded as 
irrational ; and action which does not have explic- 
itly in view the ultimate happiness of all, includ- 
ing the actor, can only be regarded as moral when, 
by previous analysis and comparison, we have 
been enabled to subsume all moral actions under 
a universal law which has been proved to result in 



138 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

the security of universal happiness, and we are 
therefore impelled to obey the law without regard 
to its special or ultimate consequences.* 

To no such profound philosophical view of 
morals, however, had the prophet of Nazareth 
attained. His ethical appeals were direct, simple, 
personal, devoted to the production of immediate 
results. Viewed broadly, except as they were af- 
fected by the erroneous expectation of the speedy 
coming of the heavenly kingdom, they do not 
suffer or lack in impressiveness, as tested by the 
rigid rules of an abstract moral philosophy. The 
ethical element was everywhere dominant in the 
religion of Jesus. His "heavenly Father" was a 
moral ideal personified, — a conception not inferior, 
but superior to that of the Hebrew prophets and 
law-givers. God to him was still, and ever more 
supremely, the "Eternal, not ourselves, that makes 
for righteousness." The test of morality was at 
once and inseparably theocratic and utilitarian: 
the two ends were in no wise differentiated in his 
thought. To do right was alike conceived as per- 
fect obedience to the divine will and as the means 
of securing happiness among men. 

The Religion of Jesns as related to Judaism. 

What, finally, was the relation of the religion of 
Jesus to Judaism and its system of morals as 
enunciated in the Thorah? This question can 

*See Spencer's Data of Ethics, Savage's Morals of Evo- 
lution, Prof. Everett's essay on "The New Morality," etc. 
See also John Stuart Mill, Autobiography. Mr. Mill even 
lays down the principle that the greatest happiness cannot 
be attained when it is consciously made an end and object 
of pursuit. 



SOCIAL ASPECTS 139 

hardly be answered more satisfactorily than in the 
language of one of the most lucid and rational 
critics of the gospel literature, Ferdinand Chris- 
tian Baur.* "Jesus," he says, "declared at the 
outset that he was not come to destroy the law 
and the prophets, but to fulfil them, and might 
thus appear to have taken up an entirely affirma- 
tive position toward the Old Testament. It might 
be said that the difference between the teaching 
of Jesus and the law, or the Old Testament, was 
not one of quality, but of quantity. On this view, 
no new principle is advanced in his teaching : all 
that is done is to widen the application of the 
moral precepts which the law contained, and assert 
their authority over the whole extent of the moral 
sphere to which they are capable of referring. 
That is given back to the law which should never 
have been taken away from it. The law is de- 
clared to be capable of expansion in its meaning 
and its range of application, and this is said to 
be done. 

"This interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount 
appeals to the fact that, in the further discussion 
of the subject, individual injunctions of the law 
are taken up, and each of them brought back to 
the original meaning of the law or interpreted in 
a sense which satisfies the moral consciousness. 
But, though there is no enunciation of a general 
principle which is to apply to all cases alike, yet, 
when we consider what is said to be the true ful- 
filling of the law in each separate instance, and 

* The Church History of the First Three Centuries, by Dr. 
Ferdinand Christian Baur, late Professor of Theology in 
the University of Tubingen. 



140 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

see how in each instance what is done is to con- 
trast the outward with the inward, to disregard 
the mere act as such, and lay stress on the disposi- 
tion as that which alone confers any moral value 
on a man's acts, we cannot but recognize in this 
a new principle, and one which differs essentially 
from Mosaism. What the law contained, it is 
true, but only implicitly, is now said to be of most 
importance, and enunciated as the principle of mo- 
rality. The expansion of the law quantitatively 
amounts to a qualitative difference. The inner is 
opposed to the outer, the disposition to the act, the 
spirit to the letter. This is the essential root prin- 
ciple of [the religion of Jesus] ; * and, in insisting 
that the absolute moral value of a man depends 
simply and solely on his disposition, the [religion 
of Jesus] was essentially original." 

Historical Verity of the Man Jesus* 

And now, as we pass on to a consideration of 
the later phases of the development of the Chris- 
tian faith and doctrine, let us bear onward with us 
this sublime picture, — not indeed of a God or a 
supernatural being, but of a man, — a man loving 
in all ways to identify himself with his fellow-men, 
even the poorest and lowliest among them. More 
frequently than by any other designation, he refers 
to himself as "the Son of Man," a common desig- 

*We substitute this phrase for "Christianity," in order 
to obviate the confusion which might arise from the use of 
a term which ordinarily implies certain doctrinal beliefs 
not found in the teaching of Jesus. As a matter of fact, 
this term was not applied to the new religion during the 
lifetime of its founder. 



SOCIAL ASPECTS 141 

nation of the prophets, and at the time of Jesus 
probably not regarded as a Messianic title. Urged 
by an irresistible affection for his fellow-men, he 
gave the best labors of his life for their moral 
inspiration, — for their salvation from sin and prep- 
aration for the life of ideal perfection in the heav- 
enly kingdom. Viewing his character in this 
purely natural and human aspect, we need not and 
will not consent to the uncritical judgment of 
those destructive writers who would deny to the 
gospel stories all historical validity or regard 
Jesus as the servile imitator of the founder of 
another and widely different religion. After sep- 
arating from them the legendary and mythical 
accretions of an unscientific and credulous age, 
does there not yet remain to us the "saving rem- 
nant" of the New Testament narratives? Look- 
ing upon this picture, with all its lights and 
shadows of a noble yet fallible humanity, may we 
not say of the Prophet of Nazareth, — 

"He was a, man: 
Take him for all in all, 
We shall not look upon his like again." 

Would it then be just to conclude, with Chris- 
tendom, that the career of Jesus presents phenom- 
ena wholly unique in the world's history ? Such 
is, perhaps, the natural impulse of the human 
mind, after contemplating a life of heroic self-abne- 
gation and devotion to the welfare of human kind. 
With a like thought, we have doubtless risen from 
the perusal of the noble tribute to the founder of 
another of the world's great religions in Edwin 



142 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

Arnold's Light of Asia.* We are touched in a 
similar manner by the contemplation of the 
noblest characters of fiction, — the Jean Valjeans 
and the Romolas, ideal exemplars of this religion 
of lofty self-sacrifice. But sober second thought 
should lead us to question whether we ought not 
rather to bear in mind the human limitations of 
even the noblest of those who have lived and died 
for man, lest we fall into a species of idolatry and 
hero-worship inconsistent with the mandates of 
rational religion. At least let us not exalt one 
unduly by the disparagement of all others. The 
orthodox doctrine of "total depravity," the dark 
background against which the ideal picture of the 
supernatural Christ is limned, has no place in the 
healthy creed of rational religion. 

Old Father Taylor, of Boston, the seamen's 
missionary, whose abundant humanity outweighed 
the depressing implications of his creed, when he 
was asked, "Do you think there ever was as good 
a man as Jesus?" instantly replied, "Yes, millions 
of them I" Have not you and I also known hearts 
as true and souls as full of manly courage ? 

Let us not deny Jesus his proper place in the 
world's history, nor place him so far above the 
level of our common manhood that he shall fail to 



*We cannot protest too strongly against the systematic 
depreciation and condemnation of both Jesus and the 
Buddha in such works as Dr. Oswald's Secret of the East, 
of which more hereafter. Making all due allowances for 
theological errors, due largely, as we have seen, in the case 
of Jesus, to the failure to give due weight to a single mis- 
taken belief, the noble personality and fine moral insight 
of those two great teachers are influences for good that 
the world will not willingly let die, or consent to see mis- 
represented or undervalued. 



SOCIAL ASPECTS 143 

be to us always a rational example and inspiration 
to all noble things. Let him live in our hearts 
and minds a heroic, manly character, "not too 
saintly to be human." Is this indeed so difficult ? 

"Long fed on boundless hopes, O race of man, 

How angrily thou spurn' st all simpler fare ! 

'Christ,' some one says, 'was human, as we are. 

No judge eyes us from heaven our sin to scan. 

"We live no more when we have done our span !' 

'Well, then, for Christ,' thou answerest, 'who can care? 

From sin which heaven records not, why forbear? 

Live we like brutes, our life without a plan !' 

So answerest thou. But why not rather say, 

'Hath man no second life ? Pitch this one high ! 

Sits there no judge in heaven our sin to see? 

More strictly then the inward judge obey. 

Was Christ a man like us ? Ah! let us try 

If we then, too, can be such men as he!' " 



VL 

MYTH AND MIRACLE IN THE GOSPEL 
STORIES. 

The earliest phase in the development of the 
Christian faith is that presented in the life and 
teachings of the Nazarene Prophet ; that, in short, 
which we have attempted to deduce in the two 
preceding lectures from the record of the Triple 
Tradition of the Synoptical Gospels. The four 
Gospels also contain the record of a later phase in 
the growth of the new religion, — that embodied 
in the mythical and miraculous accretion which 
gathered at a very early day around the striking 
personality of the Man of Nazareth. Though the 
modern scientific spirit, which recognizes the 
enduring supremacy of law throughout the opera- 
tions of nature, including the various mutations 
of human affairs, would perhaps justify us in 
relegating the miraculous elements in the gospel 
stories to the realm of the imaginary and unreal 
on a priori grounds, in view of the importance 
which these elements have ever maintained in the 
popular apprehension, we cannot refrain from a 
further careful consideration of their true histori- 
cal meaning and the probable sources of their 
origin. 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 145 

Demoniacal Possession and the Miraculous Cure 
of Disease. 

We have already suggested that there may be a 
certain historical foundation for the alleged phe- 
nomena of demoniacal possession and exorcism, 
interpreted as the relief of nervous diseases, such 
as epilepsy or hysteria ; and a like germ of actual 
fact may lie at the basis of other stories of mirac- 
ulous cure found in the synoptical tradition. The 
influence of a powerful mind and will over im- 
pressionable natures is so frequently illustrated in 
the affairs of our every-day life that it requires no 
supernatural hypothesis for its explanation. A 
trusted physician or nurse often exercises a more 
potent influence over an invalid than that derived 
from medicine or the more obvious hygienic appli- 
ances. Belief in the curative efficacy of religious 
rites and priestly manipulations is common among 
all ignorant peoples, resting, doubtless, on similar, 
wholly natural, and non-miraculous facts, exagger- 
ated by the imagination. We have only to sup- 
pose a like exaggeration, such as universally occurs 
in the oral transmission even of the reports of 
ordinary everyday occurrences, to account for the 
greater number of the alleged miraculous events 
recorded in the Synoptical Gospels.* 

The Birch Stories of the Synoptical Gospels. 

A critical examination of the records of other 
reported phenomena of an extraordinary character 

* A recent interesting study of the alleged miracles of the 
present and past generations may be consulted in The 
Dictionary of Miracles, Instructive, Realistic, and Dog~ 
matic, by L. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. 



146 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

discloses so many discrepancies of statement that, 
apart from any general scientific hypothesis of the 
incredibility of miracles, and from the fact tha-, 
the witnesses to the events are all anonymous and 
testify at second hand, we are justified in rejecting 
them by the recognized rules of testimony con- 
cerning ordinary statements of fact. We have 
already pointed out some of these discrepancies in 
the stories of the miraculous birth of Jesus. Apart 
from the fundamental disagreements in the narra- 
tives of Matthew and Luke, it is wholly incredible 
that Mark, the earliest writer, and John, the latest 
biographer of Jesus, should omit all reference to 
this alleged and most wonderful occurrence, if it 
had the least foundation in fact. 

The natural genesis and growth of these legends 
among an uncritical and unscientific people like 
the early Christian converts are easily accounted 
for. Bishop Lightfoot says of the Jews of this 
period : "They were given over beyond measure to 
beliefs in all sorts of delusions, exorcisms, amulets, 
charms, and dreams. They were ready to believe 
everything strange, wild, and unnatural." Renan 
declares that "miracles were considered at that 
time the indispensable mark of the Divine and the 
sign of the prophetic calling."* Nor was this 
tendency an exclusive characteristic of the Jews. 
The masses of the people, and even many of the 



*Life of Jesus, p. 230. There are some indications that 
Jesus was himself less credulous than the masses of his 
people, and that he did not regard miracles as necessary 
credentials to his office as a teacher of morals and religion. 
Thus, he rebuked the Pharisees for "seeking: after a sign," 
declaring, according to the oldest Gospel, "Tiiere shall no 
sign be given unto this generation" (Mark viii., 11, 12). 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 147 

educated classes throughout the Roman Empire, 
were addicted to like beliefs. The birth stories of 
the Gospels, indeed, were evidently not of Jewish, 
but of Aryan origin. The earliest Jewish converts, 
as we have seen, and their successors, the Ebion- 
ites, rejected the story of the miraculous birth and 
the alleged virginity of the mother of Jesus, — a 
fact which was accounted to them as heresy by 
the already growing Orthodoxy of the earliest 
Christian centuries. The birth stories of the 
Gospels have much in common with the similar 
legends related of Krishna, Buddha, Apollo, 
Horos, and other Pagan deities. Through all of 
them run the easily discernible features of a 
primitive solar mythology, to which they are refer- 
able for their true explanation. The religion of 
Jesus at once came into contact and competition 
with the current faiths of Paganism, and the 
non- Jewish or Hellenized Christian apologists 
could by no means fail to ascribe to Jesus the 
possession of powers as wonderful and of an origin 
as divine as those claimed for the older demi-gods 
of the Aryan mythology.* How completely these 
stories were ignored by the earliest Jewish Chris- 
tians, however, appears in the total absence of 
reference to them in the Gospels, outside the early 
chapters of Matthew and Luke, in which they are 
related. 

The Similar Legend of Apollonius of Tyaua. 

Perhaps the growth of the Christian legend can 

be better understood and illustrated by reference 

*The application of the title "Son of God" to Jesus, by a 
not unnatural misapprehension of the nan-Jewish con- 
verts to Christianity, doubtless served to suggest and en- 
courage the belief in the divine incarnation. 



148 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

to the history of another remarkable man whose 
life was contemporary with the earliest Christian 
century, and whose story, upon its mythical and 
legendary side, bears striking and noteworthy 
resemblances to that of the founder of Christianity 
as preserved to us in the gospel traditions. Apol- 
lonius of Tyana was undoubtedly an historical 
personage. His leading biographer, Philostratus, 
whose work has descended to our time, was a 
Greek writer of repute who lived in the second 
and third centuries of the Christian era. Before 
Philostratus wrote, however, several biographies of 
Apollonius had already been composed, the first 
during his lifetime by one Damis, his friend and 
disciple, and others later by Maximus, of JEgse, and 
Maeragenes. Hitter says of the work of Damis, 
which constituted the main reliance of Philostratus 
in the composition of his more elaborate biogra- 
phy, that it was "probably free from all intentional 
dishonesty."* The memoirs of Apollonius by 
Maeragenes are referred to by Origen in his reply 
to Celsus, and the leading facts in his career were 
well known before the time of Philostratus. 

The General Reliability of the Life of Apollo- 
nius by Philostratus. 

The biography by Philostratus was undertaken 
at the urgent request of Julia Domna, the wife of 
the Emperor Septimius Severus, in the early part 
of the third century of the Christian era, rather 
more than a hundred years after the death of 

* The History of Ancient Philosophy, Vol. IV., p. 481. By 
Dr. Heinricli Ritter. 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 149 

Apollonius. Baur* regards this work as a "ten- 
dency writing," the object of which was to har- 
monize the doctrines of the Pythagorean philoso- 
phy with the prevailing Platonism of the extant 
systems of Paganism. He conceives that Philo- 
stratus intentionally attributed to Apollonius 
wonderful works of a like character to those 
ascribed to Jesus by the Christians, and thus 
inferentially throws doubt upon the historical 
value of his biography. The general tenor of the 
work, however, is unquestionably personal and 
biographical rather than philosophical. Its de- 
fence of the Pythagorean philosophy is fragmen- 
tary, incomplete, and wholly incidental to its main 
object. Its leading facts and features are explicitly 
asserted to have been derived from the older 
memoranda of Damis, against which no such 
suspicion has ever obtained. They were accepted 
as in the main trustworthy by eminent contro- 
versialists of the time, and are confirmed in 
many particulars by internal evidence and by such 
allusions to Apollonius as we find in earlier and 
contemporary writers, and may be regarded as 
generally authentic, with the same allowance for 
exaggeration and interpolation in the mythical 
and miraculous portions of jfche narrative which we 
make in our estimation of the Christian Gospels. 
Ritter, whose treatment of this subject is candid 
and rational, does not agree with Baur that Philo- 
stratus had Christ in mind in composing his 
biography of Apollonius, and affirms that those 

* Christ and Apollonius. Also History of the Church in 
the First Three Christian Centuries, by Ferdinand Chris- 
tian Baur. 



150 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

who take this view "appear to have looked but 
little into the general character of Pbilostratus as 
an author."* This conception of Banr may 
properly be discarded as resting upon no visible 
evidence, either internal or external to the work 
itself. 

It is noteworthy that all these writings relating 
to Apollonins were composed in the Greek lan- 
guage, which was the native tongue of their 
subject. Their authorship is unquestioned; anc 
the memoranda of Damis, the chief source of their 
information, were written during the lifetime of 
Apollonius. In all these respects, the biography 
by Philostratus, which is the only one possessed by 
us, presents testimonials to its validity superior to 
the Christian Gospels, the authorship of which is 
anonymous or pseudonymous, which were written 
in a language that Jesus did not write or speak, 
and in the composition of which we have no 
assured evidence that their writers possessed any 
memoranda prepared during the lifetime of their 
subject. 

The liife aad Labors of Apolloalus. 

Apollonius was born in Tyana, the capital city 
of Cappadocia in Asia Minor, shortly after the 
birth of Jesus. f He obtained his earlier educa- 
tion at Tarsus under one Euthydemus, a well-known 

*History of Ancient Philosophy, Vol. IV. So likewise 
the author of "ApoiLoniua Xyanajus" in the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica. 

fMr. Daniel M. Tredwell, of Brooklyn, N.Y. (Mem. Am. 
Eth. Soc), an enthusiastic student of the Apollonian liter- 
ature, fixes the time of his birth in the precise year from 
which our era is erroneously dated. Of the exact date, 
however, there appears to he considerable uncertainty. 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 151 

instructor, and afterward withdrew to iEgae, a 
small village containing a temple dedicated to the 
god ^Esculapius, where he spent some years in 
study and meditation upon the problems of relig- 
ion, philosophy, and practical ethics. He there 
met Euxenus, a disciple of Pythagoras, by whom 
he was instructed in the philosophy of that 
eminent teacher. While very young, he renounced 
the follies and superficial pleasures of society, 
lived abstemiously upon a vegetarian diet, totally 
abjured the use of wine, wore no covering upon 
his feet, and only the simplest clothing. He re- 
frained from cutting his hair, as did the Hebrew 
Nazarites and Hindu ascetics, and slept upon the 
hard ground. 

After spending some five years in ascetic con- 
templation and study, he travelled for a long time 
through the Eastern countries, — Assyria, Persia, 
Babylonia, India, and Egypt, — studying their dif- 
ferent religions and social customs. During his 
travels, and subsequently, he is said to have per- 
formed many marvellous works ; though his biog- 
rapher, in a tone strikingly similar to that of the 
modern Theosophists and advocates of "Esoteric 
Buddhism," everywhere disclaims the implica- 
tion of miracle or violation of law apparently 
involved in the stories.* Apollonius is said to 

* Pythagoras was also reputed to be a thaumaturgist or 
worker of miracles, and tne healers of disease in general 
were accredited by the popular superstition as the pos- 
sessors of remarkable and supernatural powers. These 
claims should not be regarded as the result of deliberate 
fraud or dishonesty, but rather as a recognized feature in 
the current methods of medical treatment, involving an 
element of mystery and concealment which the profession 
has not yet wholly outgrown. 



152 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

have possessed the faculty of clairvoyance, or 
"second sight," by means of which he perceived 
and described the murder of the Emperor Domi- 
tian, when many miles distant from the place of 
its occurrence. He also foretold future events 
upon the occasion of his own journeyings, and in 
the more important affairs of Roman history. 
He is said to have appeared to his friends Damis 
and Demetrius bodily, though at a distance from 
his actual abiding place, while yet alive ; and to 
have appeared to the Emperor Aurelian when he 
was about to destroy Tyana, and to a young un- 
believer who ridiculed his doctrine some years 
after his death. 

Alleged Instances ef Demoniacal Exorcism and 
Care attributed to Apollenins. 

He possessed a remarkable power over the wills 
and actions of others; something akin, appar- 
ently, to the phenomena known to us as "animal 
magnetism." At one time, he is said to have 
quelled a turbulent and riotous crowd of people 
by simply waving his hands over their heads. At 
Lesbos, he is reported to have cured a young man 
possessed of devils; and many other instances of 
demoniacal exorcism are also attributed to him. 
A young man in Athens, through whom the demon 
uttered cries of fear and rage, could not face the 
look of Apollonius, — an incident reminding us of 
the healing of the demoniac of Gadara b, Jesus. 
In another instance, a statue is said to have fallen, 
overturned by the evil spirit as he departed out of 
the afflicted person, — recalling the entrance of the 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 153 

demons into the swine and their destruction in the 
sea, in the Christian legend. 

In Asia Minor, Apollonius is said to have cured 
many people of the plague then raging; and, in 
Rome, it was reported and currently believed that 
he restored to life a girl of noble family who had 
been dead for some time.* During his life, he was 
regarded by many as the incarnation of the god 
Jupiter. He was mentioned with honor by his 
contemporary, Lucan,f the author of "Pharsalia" ; 
and another contemporary, in contemplating his 
career, is said to have exclaimed, "We have a god 
among us I" His death occurred probably at 
Ephesus, when he was about a hundred years old. 
It was believed by many that he did not die, but 
that he was taken up bodily into heaven, as in the 
stories of the Hebrew patriarch Enoch and the 
prophet Elijah. A popular legend subsequently 
assigned the place of his translation to the temple 
of Diana Dictynna in Crete, upon the occurrence of 
which event it was said that the voices of young 
maidens were heard singing, "Quit the earth, O 
divine Apollonius, and ascend up into heaven." 

The Deification and Worship of Apollonius. 

After his death, he received divine honors at 
Tyana and throughout Asia Minor, and was held 
in universal respect by the Pagan world for many 

♦Philostratus, while reporting these marvellous occur- 
rences on the authority of Darais, does not regard thein as 
evidences of supernatural or miraculous power, but refers 
them to the profound knowledge of the powers of nature 
which Apollonius had acquired through investigation and 
study. 

t Marcus Anmeus Lucanus, a Roman poet, circum 29-65 
A.D. 



154 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

generations. Hierocles, the governor of Bithynia, 
a noted Pagan controversialist, wrote a work in 
opposition to Christianity, the main feature of 
which consisted in an ingenious parallel between 
Christ and Apollonius. His object, however, was 
not to claim divine honors for Apollonius, but to 
combat the similar claim made for Jesus by Chris- 
tian apologists. His work* was rationalistic in 
its leading features ; and he declared that the intel- 
ligent heathen did not regard Apollonius as a god, 
but only as a man beloved of the gods.f The phi- 
losopher Eunapius, in consideration of the re- 
markable character of Apollonius as described by 
Philostratus, proposed to entitle his biography 
'EirtSqfiia elg- avQpkirov? deov, The Advent of the God- 
Man. Even Christian apologists, like Sidonius 
Apollinaris £ and Cassiodorus,§ have nothing to 
say against Apollonius, but, on the contrary, speak 
loudly in his praise, jj 

A temple was erected to his honor at Tyana, his 
native city; and his statue was placed therein 
among those of the gods. Another temple was 
erected to him subsequently by the Emperor Cara- 
calla, and Alexander Severus enshrined him among 
his household deities. For four centuries, he re- 
ceived divine honors throughout Greece and Asia 



* A6yot QiAafo/feig; Words of the Love of Truth, or True 
Discourse. 

t Our information is derived from the essay of Eusebius, 
Contra Hieroclem. 

tCireum 431-484 A.D.. some time Bishop of Clermont in 
Auverejne, and author of historical epistles, poems, etc. 

§ Lived 468-560 A.D., author of a Universal History to 
A.D. 519, and other work3. 

II See Apollonius of Tyana. By Albert Reville, Doctor 
of Theology, Rotterdam. 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 155 

Minor, and his renown extended to remote coun- 
tries.* 

The Religion and Ethical Teaching of Apol- 
lonius. 

The religion inculcated by Apollonius tacitly 
recognized the gods of the Roman pantheon, but 
tended strongly toward monotheism. He espe- 
cially recommended, says Ritter, a pure worship of 
the Supreme God who is separate and alone, to 
whom should be offered the pure prayer of the 
spirit, which requires not even words for its ex- 
pression. He forbade all animal sacrifices, and 
also taught that no sacrifices of any sort should be 
offered to the Supreme God, on the ground that 
whatever belongs to earth is impurity to God. 
Herein, doubtless, we see the influence of those 
Eastern philosophies of which Apollonius was a 
faithful student. 

In his travels, not only in his native country, 
but in Egypt, Assyria, India, and Persia, he taught 
everywhere a higher morality than that inculcated 
by the current religions, and endeavored to reform 
the grosser abuses of the heathen modes of wor- 
ship, thus spending his life in the effort to benefit 
and elevate mankind. Soon after his return from 
his long sojourn in the East, he applied for initia- 
tion into the sacred mysteries of Eleusis ; but hi3 

*The poet and controversialist Lucian, writing about 150 
A.D., the friend of Celsus, whom Froude calls "the most 
gifted and purest-hearted thinker outside the Church, 
who was produced under the Roman Empire," alludes to 
Apollonius incident illy in his account of the religious 
charlatan Alexander of Abonoteichus, whom he supposes 
to have been instructed in magic by the disciples of Apol- 
lonius. Lucian condemned the supernaturalism of the 
followers of Apollonius as he did that of the Christians. 



156 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

popular repute as a magician, or worker of mira- 
cles, caused his application to be rejected. Four 
years later, however, when his character and the 
beneficence of his labors were better known, he 
was received and initiated.* "Apollonius," says 
a writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "is not to 
be looked upon as a shallow and vulgar impostor, 
though, to influence men's minds, he had recourse 
to artifices and pretensions unworthy of a true phi- 
losopher. With some of the spirit of a moral and 
religious reformer, he appears to have attempted, 
though vainly, to animate an expiring Paganism 
with a new and purer life." f 

Remarkable Coincidences of the Apollonian and 
Christian Traditions. 

We have sketched the salient points in the 
career of Apollonius thus at length, in order both 
to rescue from unmerited oblivion the name and 
story of one who in his day was well counted 
among the benefactors of mankind, and also, by 
comparison with the Christian legend, to illustrate 
the growth of mythical and miraculous accretions 
around the record of a noble human life. The 
relegation of these elements to their proper region 
of unreality does not in the least justify us in ques- 
tioning the historical verity of the personage about 
whom they have grown into being; nor do the 
striking coincidences of the Christian and the 
Apollonian legends detract at all, as some have 
claimed, from the probable truth of the story of 

*"The Eleusinian Mysteries," by Francois Lenormant, 
Contemporary Review, May, et seq., 1880. 
t Article, "Apollonius Tyanaeus," Encyclopaedia Britan- 
nica, ninth edition. 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 157 

the man Jesus of the Triple Tradition of the Syn- 
optical Gospels. The contemplation of these co- 
incidences, however, and of the leading features 
in the Apollonian tradition, cannot fail to throw 
valuable light upon the genesis and development 
of the Christian my thus, and to convince us that 
the story of Jesus, on its supernatural side, is no 
single or unique phenomenon in the history of the 
world's religions. 

The significant fact of the contemporaneous 
growth of these two legends, each centering about 
an undoubted historical personage, will go far to 
explain the similarity of the mythical and miracu- 
lous elements which enter into the popular versions 
of both. Each came into being in the midst of a 
society familiar with the leading features of the 
Greek and Roman mythologies, with which were 
also mingling the similar beliefs of Persia and 
India. The acquaintance of Apollonius and his 
disciples with the Eastern mythologies is notewor- 
thy and suggestive. The likeness of the two nar- 
ratives, however, appears in just this subsequent 
accretion of myth and miracle, and in nothing else. 
The personal histories of Jesus and Apollonius — 
the one an uncultivated Galilean peasant, dying an 
ignoble death upon the cross at the age of about 
thirty-three years, in an obscure corner of Asia; 
and the other an educated pagan, rounding out a 
full century in the light of the highest civilization 
then known to the world, and dying in favor, 
apparently, with God and man — are totally dissimi- 
lar. The one was a Pythagorean philosopher : the 
other taught no system of philosophy; and that 



158 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

which commingled with his simple moral teachiDg 
in after times was not the doctrine of Pythagoras, 
bnt that of Plato. The supposition that the 
Christian story was borrowed from the Apollonian 
is, therefore, as unreasonable as the contrary 
hypothesis of Baur ; and all comparisons between 
the two narratives made with the intent to throw 
doubt upon the identity of Jesus as an historical 
character, or to undervalue his work as a religious 
teacher, are futile and irrational. 

Moreover, the conclusion in regard to the non- 
miraculous character of the marvellous work3 
reported of Apollonius, through the frank admis- 
sions and explanations of Philostratus, is precisely 
similar to the conclusion to which we are com- 
pelled by the critical investigation of the gospel 
stories. In both instances, perhaps, there may be 
some foundation for the alleged phenomena of 
exorcism and cure in the potent influence of mind 
over mind. We discard at once, however, all idea 
of reality in connection with such relations as that 
of restoring life to the dead, except as it may 
have been based upon the relief of some such 
condition as trance, and assign to their proper 
mythological sources the origin of the fables about 
the miraculous birth and bodily translation of 
Apollonius. The appearance in both the Apollo- 
nian and the Christian legends of certain elements, 
apparently of Eastern or Hindu origin, and the 
well-authenticated account of the travels of Apol- 
lonius in India, together with the attempt of 
certain recent writers to attribute a Buddhistic 
origin to the entire gospel tradition, make it 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 159 

imperative for us to examine further the grounds 
of this opinion. 

The Alleged Buddhistic Origin of the Christian 
Tradition. 

We have already demonstrated that the Man 
Jesus of the Triple Tradition of the synoptics was 
a Hebrew, and a Hebrew only ; moving naturally in 
the Palestine of eighteen centuries ago, speaking 
the language and discussing the familiar topics of 
his time and people. His admitted pessimism was 
native to the soil and thought of Palestine, and 
neither in its expression nor in its vision of the 
future did it present any of the characteristic 
features of Buddhism. If the pessimism of Jesus 
differed from that of Job and the author of Eccle- 
siastes, it was rather in this : that it qualified its 
despair of the existing social order by the great hope 
and promise of a new and diviner order soon to be 
established on the earth, in the joys of which all 
the righteous would consciously participate. To 
this everywhere present and dominant doctrine of 
the Gospels, Buddhism presents no analogy. 

In examining the ingenious argument of Dr. 
Felix Oswald in favor of the Buddhistic origin of 
the Christian tradition,* it is evident at a glance 
that his analogies, on their Christian side, are 
borrowed chiefly from the Fourth Gospel, and 
from the contradictory birth stories of the First 
and Third Gospels, which, as we have seen, are 
excluded from the material upon which we are 

* The Secret of the East. By Dr. Felix Oswald. Compare 
especially the "Concordance of Buddhism and Chris- 
tianity," pp. 128-139 in Appendix. 



160 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

permitted to draw for a rational outline of the 
life and thought of Jesus.* Other alleged analo- 
gies bearing upon the mythical or historical sides 
of the narrative of the Synoptical Gospels, like the 
stories of the temptation, the transfiguration, and 
the choosing of the disciples, f bear so little re- 
semblance in detail and present such marked 
points of dissimilarity that the candid critic can 
discover therein no evidence of derivation the one 
from the other. Of the alleged "Dogmatical Analo- 
gies," % some tested by a true critical analysis are 
found neither in the Synoptical Gospels nor in the 
authentic teachings of Buddhism ; § and others 
have been shown to grow so naturally out of the 
Judaism of Palestine that no hypothesis of foreign 
influence is required to account for their natural 
genesis and development. 

On the other hand, it must be admitted that 
some notable analogies may be discovered between 
the Buddhist mythus and the birth stories of the 
First and Third Gospels, and the possibility that 
the mythical accretions which gathered about the 
historical personalities of Prince Siddartha and 
Jesus had a common origin may also be admitted. 
That the origin of the Christian mythus can be 
traced directly to Buddhism, however, it would be 
difficult to prove. It bears the easily discernible 



*Cf. paragraphs 1-14, 16, 19, 21, 24, 27, pp. 128-136, Secret 
of the East. 

t Secret of the East, paragraphs 15, 17, 20, pp. 132, 133. 

t Secret of the East, pp. 136, 137. 

§ Where, for instance, can we discover the "belief in the 
necessity of redemption by a supernatural mediator," or 
in the efficacy of vicarious atonement, in the authentic 
teachings of Buddhism, in anything like the Christian 
sense? 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 161 

impress of a solar mythology, the leading features 
of which were widely distributed throughout Asia 
and Europe.* Upon this question, probably, there 
is no better authority than Prof. Max Miiller, who 
acknowledges the startling coincidences between 
Buddhism and Christianity and the prior origin 
of the former faith. In reference to alleged his- 
torical channels through which Buddhism has 
influenced Christianity, however, he declares: "I 
have been looking for such channels all my life, 
but hitherto I have found none. What I have found 
is that for some of the most startling coincidences 
there are historical antecedents on both sides ; and, 
if we know these antecedents, the coincidences be- 
come far less startling." f 

The Growth off miraculous Legends illustrated 
in the Gospel Stories. 

Investigating further the miraculous relations of 
the Gospels, we find that the Triple Tradition 
contains no record of the restoration of the dead 

*This is likewise true of the mythical elements in the 
Apollonian tradition, the ultimate origin of which, like 
those in the gospel stories, may be traceable, perhaps, to 
India, but not directly to Buddhism. 

t From a letter addressed to a conference on Buddhism 
held at Sion College, in June, 1882, to discuss the real or 
apparent coincidences between Buddha and Christ. Prof. 
Miiller aho declared such a discussion, in general terms, 
almost an impossibility, saying that "the name of Buddh- 
ism is applied to religious opinions, not only of the most 
varying, but of a decidedly opposite character, held by 
people in the highest and lowest stages of civilization, 
divided into endless sects, nay, founded on two distinct 
codes of canonical writings." See Max Miiller's most 
recent work, India: What it can teach us, pp. 108, 109, 
note by Dr. Alexander Wilder (Funk & Wagnalls edition, 
"Standard Library"). The early date of the Lalita Vis- 
tara, defended by Dr. Oswald, is not accepted by such 
recent writers on Buddhism as Rhys-Davids and Olden- 
burg, than whom, I suppose, there are no more reliable 
authorities. 



162 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

to life by Jesus, the only occurrence popularly 
interpreted to be a miracle of this character being 
the cure of the daughter of Jairus, * where Jesus 
explicitly declares "the damsel is not dead, but 
sleepeth." The rational explanation of this event 
may doubtless be found in the well-known phe- 
nomenon of trance. In Luke, we have the exag- 
gerated account of the raising of the widow's son ; f 
while the Fourth Gospel, with great detail, relates 
the still more marvellous story of the restoration 
of Lazarus to life after he had been dead four 
days.J It is absolutely incredible that these occur- 
rences, if having any foundation in fact, should be 
unknown to the writers of the earlier Gospels, or, 
if known, that they should not be reported.§ By 
the investigation of these similar legends, we are 
led to the consideration of the principle underly- 
ing the growth of marvellous relations. 

It appears to be a universal rule, in the Bible as 
elsewhere, that miraculous legends are subject to a 
regular law of growth, — a rule which, if recognized 
and admitted, at once and completely destroys 
their alleged character as actual occurrences 
except as they are susceptible of an entirely 
natural explanation, and consequently their his- 
torical value as evidences of supernatural power. 
Such stories become uniformly more numerous and 

*Mark v., 37-42 ; Matt, lx., 23-26; Luke viii., 51-55. 

t Luke vii., 11-17. t John xi., 1-46. 

§ These miracles were not dooe in secret, according to the 
record, but were generally known. Of the raising of the 
widow's son, Luke declares, "This rumor of him went 
forth throughout all Judea and throughout all the region 
round about" (Luke vii., 17); while, according to the 
author of the Fourth Gospel, "many of the Jews" were 
aware of the raising of Lazarus (John xi., 19, 45, 47-54). 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 163 

more marvellous as time separates the historical events 
about which they cluster farther and farther from the 
period of their relation. This is true, even of eras 
when a belief in the possibility of miraculous 
occurrences is common. In the writings of the 
eighth century prophets,* who spoke of their own 
personal times and experiences, there is hardly a 
trace of the miraculous ; while the Books of Sam- 
uel, Kings, and Chronicles, written long after the 
events which they describe, contain many marvel- 
lous relations. The first of the apocryphal books 
of the Maccabees is a plain historical narrative 
almost entirely free from miracle ; while the later 
books, five in all,f exhibit a steady and constant 
development of the miraculous as the time of their 
composition recedes from the period described. 

The Epistles of Paul, the earliest writings of 
the New Testament, report none of the miracles 
of Jesus, though Paul himself was a believer in 
"signs and wonders."f Mark, the oldest gospel, 
contains fewer miracles than either of the other 
synoptics; Luke contains more marvellous rela- 
tions than Matthew; while the Fourth Gospel, 
though its miracles are less numerous and more 
obviously selected to serve the special purpose of 
its writer, exhibits a vast exaggeration in the 
direction of thaumaturgical effect. The birth 
stories of the synoptics, absent wholly from Mark, 
the earliest gospel, found in their simplest form in 
Matthew, amplified in Luke by the account of the 

* Amos, Hosea, Isaiah I., Zechariah II., Micah. 
t Only two are included in the Old Testament Apocrypha 
as ordinarily published. 
tl. Cor. xii., i^-10 ; xiv. ; xr. 



164 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

annunciation to the mother of John the Baptist 
and the story of his birth and relationship to Jesus, 
are still more exaggerated in the later apocry- 
phal Gospels, where we find not only the basis of 
the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Concep- 
tion of the Virgin Mary, but also many marvel- 
lous stories of the childhood of Jesus, illustrated 
by miracles introduced for a purely thaumaturgical 
effect, such as making mud birds and causing 
them to fly, and changing a child into a kid. The 
story of the calling of the earlier disciples in the 
Synoptical Gospels, related simply and naturally in 
Mark and Matthew, is expanded and embellished 
in Luke by the wonderful narrative of the mirac- 
ulous draft of fishes. 

miraculous legends of a Mythological or Alle- 
gorical Character. 

The gospel stories of walking on the water and 
stilling the tempest, if not legends of a purely 
mythological character, may have grown out of 
certain parables or allegorical sayings of Jesus, 
intended to illustrate the truth that man can 
overcome the extremest obstacles and difficulties 
as long as he is sustained by the courage which 
constant faith bestows, but, with the commence- 
ment of fear or distrust, his failure becomes cer- 
tain. Goethe assigns to these stories a place of 
high honor among legends which excel in beauty 
and depth of meaning.* The story of the miracu- 
lous feeding of the multitude may also be of a 
parabolic or allegorical character, growing out of 

* See Bible for Learners, Vol. Ill By Dr. I. Hookyaas. 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 165 

such sayings as the beatitude, "Blessed are they 
who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they 
shall be filled." If so, these legends are to be 
interpreted, not as the relation of actual and 
material occurrences, but as parables, illustrating 
an obvious interior and spiritual truth. These 
stories, however, bear some of the characteristic 
signs of the solar mythus, — signs which become 
still more evident in the reported miracles of the 
Fourth Gospel. 

Remarkable Character of the Fourth Gospel 
Miracles. 

A further investigation of this remarkable Chris- 
tian epic in this connection cannot fail to confirm 
our previous conclusion in regard to its artificial 
and unhistorical character. In the mythologies 
connected with other religions, careful students 
have recognized a notable recurrence of similar 
circumstances or events in the stories of the va- 
rious incarnations of the solar deity. Thus, in the 
Greek and Roman systems, we have reported the 
twelve labors of Herakles. In the great Babylo- 
nian epic, we have related on twelve distinct tab- 
lets as many wonderful adventures of the hero 
Izdubar, whose father was Shamas, the sun.* 
Among the early Hebrew legends, we have sim- 
ilarly reported the twelve mighty deeds of Samson, 
whose name also signifies the sun, or one born of 
the sun.f These stories were all originally in- 

* The Chaldean Account of Genesis. By George Smith, 
A.M. 
t See Hebrew Poetry. By Michael Heilprin. 



166 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

tended to symbolize the passage of the sun through 
the twelve astronomical signs of the zodiac ; though 
in after times, and to the popular apprehension, 
their natural origin was forgotten, and they came 
to be regarded as narrations of historical facts. 

It is a striking fact, and one which has appar- 
ently escaped the observation of scholars, that we 
have certain similar features presented to us in the 
great Christian epic of the Incarnate Logos, — the 
Fourth Gospel. The number of the miracles in 
the Fourth Gospel is commonly stated to be only 
seven ; but, if we bear in mind that we have here 
not merely the biography of the man Jesus dur- 
ing the short period of his life and labors in Pales- 
tine, but the story of the eternally existing Logos, 
the number of his wonderful works, as herein 
related, becomes precisely twelve, no more and no 
less. These are : 1. The creation of the world. 
"The world was made by him, and without him 
was not anything made that was made." * 2. The 
Incarnation. "The Word was made flesh, and 
dwelt among us ; and we beheld his glory, the glory 
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace 
and truth." f 3. The turning of water into wine.J 
4. The manifestation of clairvoyance, or "second 
sight," in his interview with the woman of Sama- 
ria^ 5. The cure of the nobleman's son, who was 
sick of a fever. || 6. The cure of the impotent 
man.U" 7. The miracle of the loaves and fishes.** 
8. Jesus walks upon the water at the Sea of Gal- 
ilee.ff 9. He cures a blind man at the pool of 

•John i., 3. t John i., 14. t John ii., 3-11. 

tJohniv.,7-19. ||John iv., 46-54. IT John v., 2-9. 

►John vi., 5-14. ft John vi„ 16-21. 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 167 

Siloam.* 10. He raises Lazarus from the dead.f 
11. Jesus himself rises from the tomb after the 
crucifixion.^ 12. He appears to the disciples 
after the resurrection. § 

The Fourth Gospel miracles interpreted on the 
Solar Hypothesis. 

It is likewise evident that all of these alleged 
miracles — no two of which are precisely similar 
in character — have an obvious meaning as inter- 
preted by the solar theory. The creation legend 
of the Old Testament has long been recognized by 
scholars as a myth of the dawn, when the rising 
sun, moving on the face of the waters, reveals first 
the earth, then the planets, then the various ani- 
mals, and, last of all, man, as he comes forth to 
pursue his daily labors. || So, too, in the Logos 
epic, the creation of the world may obviously be 
regarded as the work of the solar deity, not yet 
incarnate. The incarnation itself is a miracle so 
universally attributed to the sun-god that it is nec- 
essary only to recall the fact to establish the a 
priori probability of it3 solar character. The 
transformation of water into wine is but a poet- 
ical figure for the ever-recurring wonder which 
the sun is working in nature. The phenomenon 
of clairvoyance, of a vision penetrating into all 
secrets and to the uttermost parts of the earth, is 
attributed by the mythologies of many nations to 
the "all-seeing eye" of the sun. If 

* John ix. , 1-7. t John xi. , 1-46. 

t John xx., 11-18. SJohn xx., 14— xxi., 25. 

II See Bible for Learners, Vol. I. 

IF Like phenomena, as we have seen, are attributed to 
Apollonius of Tyana. 



168 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

The miracles of cure are simply poetical state- 
ments of the universally recognized fact of the 
healthful and life-giving energies of the solar rays. 
Especially is this interpretation significant in the 
alleged restoration of sight to the blind. It is a 
beautiful symbol of the sun's beneficent influence 
accompanying the dawn of every day and the dis- 
sipation of the darkness of night. The sun also 
gives power to the impotent ; and, as he marks the 
passing of the years, he allays the hot fever of 
youth. So, too, the sun brings food to all the 
children of man. He multiplies abundantly the 
"loaves and fishes" for the multitudes of to-day 
as well as eighteen hundred years ago, by his 
wonderful fertilizing power. 

At the dawn of every new day, the sun-god 
comes to his wondering worshippers, walking over 
the sea, — his touch so miraculously light that no 
tiniest wavelet bows its crest beneath his tread. 
The resurrection myth, too, was a characteristic 
feature of the solar cultus in Babylonia, in Egypt, 
in the sacred mysterie3 of Mithras and Eleusis as 
well as in the Christian gospel. And, last of all, 
on every morning appears to his disciples, after the 
resurrection, 

"The dead earth's divine Redeemer, 
Giver of the Light and Law." 

When we further recall such expressions as, "In 
him was life, and the life was the light of men. 
And the light shineth in the darkness, and the 
darkness comprehendeth it not"; "That was the 
true light, which lighteth every man that cometh 
into the world"; "Every one that doeth evil 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 169 

hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest 
his deeds should be reproved"; "For I am come 
down from heaven ... to do the will of him 
that sent me"; "I am the light of the world"; 
"Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk 
while ye have the light, lest darkness come npon 
you"; "While ye have the light, believe in the 
light, that ye may be the children of light," — our 
conviction of the origin of these figures and illus- 
trative miracles in the solar mythology is strongly 
confirmed. 

We should greatly err, however, if we should 
therefore relegate the entire gospel to this physi- 
cal and mythological region for its explanation, as 
certain riders of the solar hobby have attempted 
to do.* This was but the body, the garment for 
an inner soul of philosophical and dogmatic in- 
struction, drawn mainly from the Neo-Platonism 
of Philo and the Alexandrian schools. About the 
person and the vague traditional history of the 
man Jesus, the author drew this garment, woven 
of the solar rays ; and in place of the simple doc- 
trine of love to God and love to man, which the 
Prophet of Nazareth taught as a preparation for 
the heavenly kingdom, he substituted his own mys- 
tical and dogmatic theology, which for ages has 



♦The author has no sympathy with that extreme view 
which would reduce nearly all of the Old and New Testa- 
ments to a series of mythological relations. The historical 
character and general accuracy of these narratives have 
been abundantly proven. There is no doubt, however, a 
strong intermingling of mythological elements in the his- 
tory of the pre-Mosaic period, much of it of Babylonian or 
Chaldean origin. The truth evidently lies between the 
two extremes, and a nice discrimination is often required 
to distinguish myth from history. 



170 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

weighed like an incubus upon the life and thought 
of Christendom. 



Spiritual Symbolism: " The Oriental Christ." 

Though it i3 thus evident that many of the 
miraculous events in the gospel narratives have 
their parallel in similar relations concerning the 
religious teachers or alleged incarnate deities of 
other faiths, though we find such notions as the 
miraculous conception, the virgin mother, the birth 
in a cave connected with the stories of many other 
alleged incarnations of God besides Jesus of Naza- 
reth, and discover also that these and other similar 
ideas have their origin and explanation in a 
primitive solar mythology, it should likewise be 
remembered that in Christianity, as well as in the 
older religions which drew their symbols from the 
phenomena of nature, an inner spiritual interpre- 
tation pervaded the material symbolism; and the 
physical origin of the figures was doubtless often 
forgotten or regarded as relatively unimportant. 

We have already noted the fact that a large 
proportion of the comparisons that have been 
drawn between the Buddhist and the Christian 
traditions appears on their Christian side in the 
extraneous mythological elements of the Synopti- 
cal Gospels, of non-Jewish origin, and in the un- 
historical narrative of the Fourth Gospel. It is 
noticeably, also, this ideal Christ of the Christian 
mythology and the Fourth Gospel — the incarnate 
Logos — rather than the historical Jesus of the 
Triple Tradition which constitutes the "Oriental 



MYTU AND MIRACLE 171 

Christ" of Protap Chunder Mozoomdar and the 
Brahmo Somaj of India. The natural genius of 
the Jew differs as widely from that of the Hindu 
as does the genius of the Orient from that of the 
Occident. The one is distinctively and character- 
istically Semitic: the other is distinctively and 
characteristically Aryan. The religion of Jesus 
was simple, practical, free from mysticism. That 
of India, whether illustrated in the ancient Brah- 
manical literature or in the theistic rhapsodies of 
the followers of Chunder Sen, is quite the opposite. 
The "Oriental Christ" of the eloquent Hindu is an 
Aryan and not a Semite. He possesses few of the 
recognizable traits of the historical Jesus.* 

The confusion of these two entirely distinct 
ideals of character,— of the Jesus of history with 
the legendary Christ, — in the popular and uncriti- 
cal perception, is unfortunate and misleading. By 
no arbitrary process, but by following the guidance 
of the Triple Tradition of the synoptical Gospels, 

* At the very time when these lectures were in process of 
composition and delivery, the history of the Brahmo Somaj 
in India was presenting a most striking and significant 
illustration of the rapidity with which assumptions of a 
superhuman or divine character grow up about a noble 
human personality. Hardly has Keshub Chunder Sen 
been placed upon his funerd pyre, when his disciples 
commence to speak of him almost in the precise terms in 
which the Fourth Go3pel refers to Jesus. In a resolution 
lately passed by the Apostolic Council of the "New Dis- 
pensation" occurs the following: "We believe our minis- 
ter was living in the bosom of G-od as the minister of the 
New Dispensation before the beginning of creation. And 
our relationship with him is not for time, but for eternity. 
None can accept this dispensation except through him. . . . 
Hence, when preaching the New Dispensation, it is need- 
ful to proclaim his eternal relationship with the same." 
No better illustration could possibly be afforded of the 
manner in which the Man Jesus became the ideal Christ, 
or of the marvellously short time required, in the right 
intellectual soil, for this remarkable transformation. 



172 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

we have succeeded in eliminating the extraneous 
accretions from the essential teaching and per- 
sonal characteristics of the Man of Nazareth, 
thus discovering him as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, 
and as a man of men. While it is quite possible 
that some of the mythical elements which enter 
into the Christian tradition in its second period of 
development, and perhaps also some of the doc- 
trinal and dogmatic teachings of the Fourth 
Gospel, may have been derived from the mytholo- 
gies and philosophies of India, we may safely 
conclude that no such connection can be estab- 
lished with the life or doctrine of the historical 
Jesus. The confusion of these two distinct ideals — 
the one historical and real, the other mythical and 
unreal — in the popular conception of the founder 
of Christianity is seen to have resulted naturally 
from the contact of the new religion with its local 
and temporal environment. The circumstance i3 
by no means exceptional or remarkable. Similar 
accretions of the marvellous have gathered around 
the persons of the leaders and demi-gods of all the 
ancient religions. To have discovered a religion 
without these legendary accompaniments, that, 
indeed, would have been a notable exception ; but 
no such exception can be urged in support of the 
exclusive claims of Christianity. In our subse- 
quent discussion, it will appear still more clearly, 
I think, that, judged in the court of reason and 
according to the accessible evidence of history, 
regarded in the light of the new science of com- 
parative religion, Christianity is no exceptional 
faith. Its claims of supernatural origin and 



MYTH AND MIRACLE 173 

attestation by miracle are unfounded and irra- 
tional. Like all the other religions of the world, 
it is a human institution, a natural growth out 
of pre-existing conditions, the product of our 
Father, Man. 



vn. 

THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL. 

Next to the personality of Jesus, that of Paul is 
the most interesting and noteworthy in the history 
of primitive Christianity. Auguste Comte and 
other students of this history have even assumed 
for Paul the credit of being the real founder of 
the Christian religion, regarding the gospel story 
as a mythical and legendary relation of no his- 
torical value. Our previous discussion, however, 
has prepared us to reject this hasty conclusion, and 
to assign to Jesus his proper historical position. 
"In Jesus himself," says Prof. Allen, . . . "there 
were — besides the indefinable something which 
resides in personality — at least two elements, one 
of vast personal force and the other of great 
historical significance: his intense conception of 
purely moral truth and of religion as a life, and 
his equally intense conviction of his calling as the 
Messiah of the Jews. These were the necessary 
antecedents of the revolution. . . . But, as soon as 
the movement widens out beyond the narrow 
range of a merely personal and local influence, 
then the life and work of Paul come to be just as 
essential to any real understanding of it."* 

* Saint Paul, in Christian History, vol. i. By Prof. 
Joseph Henry Allen. 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 175 

Our only reliable record of the teaching of Paul 
is found in the genuine Pauline Epistles of the 
New Testament, which, as we have seen, are the 
earliest extant Christian writings. The Acts of 
the Apostles, which in some particulars confirms 
the testimony of the Epistles, in others distorts 
or contradicts it, and is therefore of very little 
historical value in our study of Paul, except as it 
gives us some information, probably from reliable 
sources, of his early life and history. The date of 
its composition is much later than the dates of the 
Epistles; and its general character is that of a 
"tendency writing," the object of which is not so 
much the dissemination of historical truth as the 
reconciliation of two conflicting parties, into which, 
as we shall see hereafter, the early Christian com- 
munities came to be divided. 

Of the fourteen Epistles attributed to Paul by 
the current orthodox tradition, all except four — 
Romans, First and Second Corinthians, and Gala- 
tians — have had their authenticity questioned by 
able critics. There are unquestionably differences 
in thought traceable in the earlier and later 
Epistles; and, in the case of Hebrews, these differ- 
ences are so marked, and are accompanied by such 
a notable divergence in style and phraseology, that 
we are justified in concluding that Paul could not 
have been its author. With this exception, how- 
ever, and with the exception also of the Epistles to 
Timothy * and Titus, and perhaps also Ephesians, 

♦The Epistle to Timothy is dated "from Laodicea, which 
is the chiefest city of Phrygia Pacatiana" ; but Phrygia was 
not separated into three divisions, of which Phrygia 
Pacatiana was one, untv-1 the fourth century. See Home's 
Introduction, ii., 174. The Epistle, however, was of earlier 
date, though not written by Paul. 



176 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

the internal evidence would appear stronger in 
favor of their authenticity than in opposition 
thereto. The differences of thought observable 
are no greater than might be expected in the 
mental progress of a man of the wide experience 
and great mental activity of Paul.* 

The Ijegend of the Resurrection. 

Paul is the earliest witness to the prevalence of 
the legend of the resurrection of Jesus among his 
disciples and followers.! Since Paul bases his 
Christian belief and teaching upon this phenome- 
non as an established f act,$ and since Christendom 
has accepted it as the foundation stone of its 
spiritual edifice, it becomes necessary, in our further 
consideration of the evolution of the early Chris- 
tian faith, to investigate briefly the evidences of 
this remarkable occurrence, as presented in the 
writings of the New Testament. The Triple Tra- 
dition says nothing of any miraculous appearance 
of Jesus after death, nor of his ascension to 
heaven, the concluding verses of Mark being 
admittedly a spurious addition to or alteration of 
the original manuscript. In the account of the 
oldest Gospel, § the two Marys and Salome, going 
to the sepulchre at sunrise on the first day of the 
week, find the heavy stone rolled away from its 

♦The leading Epistles of Paul were probably written in 
about the following order: 1, II. Thess., about A.D. 52; 
2,1. Thess.,A.D. 53; 3, 1. Cor., A.D. 57; 4, II. Cor., A.D. 57; 
5, Gal., A.D. 58; 6, Romans, A.D. 58; 7, Phile., A.D. 62; 
8, Col , A.D. 62; 9, Phil., A.D. 63. For a discussion of their 
authenticity, see Baur. Chadwick {Bible of To-day), Super- 
natural Religion, Renan's Saint Paul, etc. 

1 1. Cor. xv , 3-8; I. Thes*. i., 10, etc. 
t Ibid., xv., 17. § Mark xvi., 1-8. 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 177 

entrance, and discover "a young man, . . . clothed 
in a long white garment," sitting within the 
sepulchre. He informs them that Jesus is risen, 
and bids them tell Peter and the other disciples 
that the Master has gone before them into Galilee, 
where they shall see him as he had promised. 

In Matthew,* the "young man in a long white 
garment" has become "an angel of the Lord," 
whose "countenance was like lightning, and his 
raiment white as snow." The two Marys go to 
the sepulchre, and are addressed by the angel; 
but no mention is made of Salome. Jesus now 
appears, first to the women, near the sepulchre, 
and afterward to the eleven disciples in Galilee. 
The record of his reappearance is very brief; and 
it is significantly added, "And when they saw him, 
they worshipped him; but some doubted." This 
Gospel contains no record of the ascension of 
Jesus, f 

In Luke,$ we find the women, including one 
Joanna, not before mentioned, going to the sepul- 
chre as before, but not alone; for "certain others 
were with them." Instead of a single "young 
man" or "angel" as in the earlier gospels, we have 
now "two men in shining garments," who converse, 
apparently in concert, with the women. Then 
follows a long and circumstantial account of the 
appearance of Jesus to the disciples, — not in Gali- 
lee, as expressly declared in the earlier Gospels, 

*Matt. xxviii. 

tOn the contrary, the final words, "Lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world," would appear to 
exclude the ascension definitely from the thought of this 
writer. 

t Luke xxiv. 



178 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

but at Emmaus near Jerusalem, and afterward in 
Jerusalem itself. Subsequently, without going to 
Galilee at all, he parts from them and ascends to 
heaven from Bethany. 

In the Fourth Gospel,* the story is still further 
altered and exaggerated. Mary Magdalene first 
discovers the removal of the stone from the sepul- 
chre, and reports it to Peter and John, who run 
thither in haste. John arrives first, and discovers 
the sepulchre to be vacant, but with the grave 
clothes still remaining. In the synoptics, the res- 
urrection is represented as an anticipated event 
which Jesus himself had prophesied ; but here we 
are informed that Peter and John "as yet knew 
not the scripture, that he should rise from the 
dead." The "two men in shining garments" of 
Luke have here become "two angels in white, the 
one sitting at the foot and the other at the head 
of where the body of Jesus had lain." Jesus 
appears first to Mary and afterward to the disci- 
ples, apparently in Jerusalem or the near vicinity, 
passing mysteriously into their midst, where they 
sat with closed doors. He shows them Sis wounded 
hands and side, and permits doubting Thomas to 
thrust his finger into the wound. Subsequently, 
in Galilee, he eats and drinks with the disciples. 
The Fourth Gospel contains no record of the 
ascension ; but the long and circumstantial account 
of his reappearances concludes with the remarkable 

♦John xx., xxi. In the Fourth Gospel, Mary does not 
recognize Jesus when he addresses her, but supposes him 
to be the gardener ; in Luke, the disciples converse with 
him a long time before they discover his identity,— most 
improbable circumstances, tending to discredit the entire 
story. 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 179 

assertion, "There are also many other things that 
Jesus did, the which if they should be written 
every one, I suppose that even the world itself 
could not contain the books that should be 
written."* 

The striking and indisputable evidences thus 
presented in the gospel narratives of the gradual 
growth and exaggeration of the legend, together 
with the evident contradictions of the different 
writers, even were their personalities known and 
their reliability as witnesses incontestable, would 
justify us in relegating the entire story to the region 
of myth and legend, in which there is no substan- 
tial basis of actual fact. All that we can rationally 
infer from these relations is the probability that 
the sepulchre of Jesus was visited soon after his 
burial, and discovered to be empty. We can only 
conjecture in regard to the actual disposition of 
the body. It may have been removed by friendly 
hands to prevent the violation of the burial-place 
by enemies, or by the Roman authorities to thwart 
the curiosity of the disciples or the inhabitants of 
the neighboring city. Renan even suggests the 
theory of a swoon and subsequent resuscitation,! 
noting the fact that the legs were not broken after 
the body was taken from the cross, as was the 
custom with crucified malefactors. This hypothe- 
sis, however, hardly appears reasonable. 

*Johnxxi., 25. 

t So also the author of Supernatural Religion, who notes 
that the body remained upon the cross a much shorter 
time than usual. The question would then rise, however, 
what became of Jesus after his resuscitation? The diffi- 
culties in answering this question consistently with the 
prevalent belief in a supernatural resurrection are greater 
$han those involved in the other solution. 



180 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

Though the story of the resurrection is thus 
seen to have no rational foundation, even in the 
circumstantial accounts of the gospel writers, there 
is abundant evidence that the legend obtained very 
early credence among the disciples and followers 
of Jesus. Nor is it in any way remarkable that 
this should be the case. The immediate followers 
of Jesus were, in the main, a rude, uneducated 
people, believing in the possibility of all sorts of 
miraculous occurrences, and especially impressed 
with the belief in the general resurrection of the 
just at the advent of the heavenly kingdom. Pro- 
foundly influenced by the life and teachings of the 
Master, confidently regarding him a3 the expected 
Messiah of his people, recovering from the first 
shock of his tragical removal, and informed that 
his sepulchre had been visited and found vacant* 
— confirming this assertion, doubtless, with their 
own vision, — what could be more natural than 
that the thought should take possession of them 
that he had risen, becoming, as Paul declares, 
the "first-fruits"* of the final resurrection? The 
thought no sooner occurred than it found utter- 
ance : "He is risen 1 He has triumphed over his 
enemies. He will come again, sustained by the 
infinite power of the heavenly Father, and com- 
plete his work." If the synoptical tradition is 
reliable, they had abundant reason for this expec- 
tation in the promises of Jesus himself, f It is 
quite probable, however, that the language here 
attributed to him had its origin, or suffered mate- 
rial modification, after the belief in the resurrec- 
*I. Cor. xv., 20. t Mark ix., 31 ; Matt, xytf., 23, etc. 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 181 

tion as an accomplished fact had been generally 
received among his followers ; growing, doubtless, 
out of some assurance which he had given of the 
general resurrection at the anticipated advent of 
the heavenly kingdom. 

Paul's SJoctrime of the Resurrection. 

Paul's doctrine of the resurrection, unlike that 
of the Gospels, did not involve the belief in the 
resuscitation of the physical body. With him, it 
presupposed no such reanimation of flesh and 
blood and bones, of gaping wounds and bodily 
appetites, as is described to us in the gospel sto- 
ries. "Flesh and blood," he declared, "cannot in- 
herit the kingdom of God."* A spiritual body 
possessing form and substance, doubtless, but of 
an ethereal nature, and without the fleshly weak- 
nesses and appetites of the present life, was to be 
the habitation of the soul in the life to come. 
Paul's conception appears to have been, not that 
Jesus had been restored bodily to life, but that, in 
spiritual form, he was "raised from the dead" ; that 
is, that he was released from sheol, the resting- 
place of the dead prior to the general resurrection, 
and had ascended to paradise, the dwelling-place of 
God and the angels, whence he would soon return 
to judge the world and inaugurate the heavenly 
kingdom. 

Paul expressly declares that his own vision of 
the crucified Jesus was of precisely the same char- 

*I. Cor. xv., 50. Read the entire chapter for a better 
understanding of Paul's doctrine of the resurrection. 
Also I. Thess. iv., 13-18. 



182 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

acter as that of the other apostles.* He bases his 
claim to be an apostle, indeed, upon this fact. 
From his own account of this vision, we readily 
gather the conclusion that it was an experience 
entirely subjective in its character. Paul appears 
to have had a peculiarly susceptible nervous organ- 
ization, and to have been subject to visions and 
ecstasies. This, indeed, he admits and describes, 
saying of one such experience that he knew not 
"whether he was in the body or out of the body."f 
The testimony of Paul, therefore, which is the 
earliest and most reliable testimony to the resur- 
rection of Jesus, appears to be based wholly upon 
a subjective vision, and cannot be held to substan- 
tiate the objective fact of his bodily reanimation 
and reappearance. 

The Early Life of Paul. 

The great Apostle of Christianity to the Gen- 
tiles was born at Tarsus, in Cilicia, a province of 
Asia Minor, about ten years after the commence- 
ment of the Christian era, as usually reckoned, or 
some fourteen years, probably, after the birth of 
Jesus. His parents were Pharisaic Jews ; and they 
bestowed upon him the name of Saul, after the 
first king of united Israel. He was brought up, as 
he declares, "after the strictest sect of the Phari- 
sees." His education was doubtless superior to 
that of any of the immediate disciples of Jesus. 
Among his teachers was the celebrated Rabbi Ga- 
maliel. His writings give evidence of some ac- 
quaintance with the Greek poets, and to a greater 

*I. Cor. ix., 1; xv., 8; Gal. i., 12, ff. t n. Cor. i., 4. 



THE CHKISTIANITY OF PAUL 183 

and notable degree with the Platonic philosophy 
as well as with the Hebrew Scriptures. Paul's 
familiarity with the philosophy of Plato has often 
been recognized, and has recently been made the 
subject of an interesting essay by Dr. Alexander 
Wilder, one of our most indefatigable students of 
ancient philosophy and the Oriental religions.* 
An able orthodox scholar, Rev. Dr. Storrs, also rec- 
ognized this fact, incidentally, in a late address, in 
which he asserted of Saint Augustine that a pas- 
sage from Cicero led him to Plato, thence naturally 
to Paul, and thence to the study of the Christian 
religion.f 

The parents of Saul had acquired the rights 
and privileges of Roman citizens, either as libertini, 
or emancipated slaves, or for some special service 
rendered the Roman State. In accordance with a 
prevalent Jewish custom, which required that 
every youth should be instructed in some useful 
art, Saul learned that of tent-making; or rather, 
probably, the weaving of the coarse cloth called 
"cilicia," — from the name of his native province, 
— of which tents and sails were usually made. 

The description of his personal appearance can 
hardly be better given than in the words of Prof. 
Allen: "Paul, then, according to the legends, was 
a man little of stature, — under five feet high, they 
say, — high-shouldered, beetle-browed, with head 
bent forward, his beard and hair at middle life of 
an iron gray; his brow wide, his face thin, his 
eye deep and somewhat sad; the dark eye, the 

*Paul and Plato, by Prof. Alexander Wilder, 
t Rev. Dr. Richard S. Storrs, in address at anniversary 
of the Union for Christian Work, Brooklyn, N.Y. 



184 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

marked features, we may suppose, of the stroDg 
Jewish type. His bodily presence was weak and 
his speech contemptible, — so his enemies said. 
That his speech was hesitating and slow, when not 
aroused, we may believe easily enough. It was so 
with Demosthenes ; it was so with Mahomet, who, 
next to Paul, has shown the most burning and 
effective eloquence of the Semitic race, and in 
whom, like Paul, that barrier of hesitation gave 
way on occasion to a hot flood of eager and pas- 
sionate words, that stirred great floods of popular 
conviction." * 

His Advocacy of Judaism : Hebrew Proselytes* 

Brought up after the strictest tradition of the 
Hebrew formalists, he doubtless early became a 
propagandist of his faith, and a vigorous oppo- 
nent, not merely of alien religions, but more espe- 
cially of those false brethren of his own religion 
who had departed from the faith of their fathers. 
The Jews of this period, already scattered in 
diverse quarters of the world, had begun to make 
proselytes from among the heathen peoples who 
surrounded them, and were thus extending their 
faith beyond the boundaries of the Hebrew race. 
These proselytes, when received into full commun- 
ion, were circumcised and fulfilled all the cere- 
monial observances enjoined by the law. Others 
became partial converts, accepting the Hebrew 
doctrine of the unity of God, abjuring idolatry, 
and sometimes attending worship at the syna- 

* Christian History, vol. i. 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 185 

gogues, but without consenting to the rite of 
circumcision or binding themselves to the minute 
observances of Pharisaic ritualism. These partial 
converts to Judaism were termed "proselytes of 
the gate." Many of them became early converts 
to the Christian faith, and differences soon arose 
between them and those followers of Jesus who 
were also strict observers of the law. 

Stephen's Mariyrsloist : The Conversion of Saul. 

Stephen, one of the earliest martyrs of the new 
religion, was a Greek-speaking Jew, — the leader of 
the Hellenic or liberal party in the Christian com* 
munity before Paul's conversion, as opposed to the 
mass of the Jews and to the stricter sect of Juda- 
izing Christians. Already, we find the germs of a 
division of the advocates of the new religion into 
conflicting parties according to their original status 
as Jews or Pagans, — a breach which, as we shall 
see hereafter, ultimately widened into an almost 
fatal schism. Heretofore, the Christians had been 
popularly and justly regarded merely as a sect of 
the Jews, — the sect of the fulfilled Messiahship. 
"Christianity," says Dean Mil man, "as yet was but 
an extended Judaism : it was preached by Jews, it 
was addressed to Jews, it was limited, national, 
exclusive."* But with the conversion of "prose- 
lytes of the gate," and of heathen who had never 
adopted the Jewish faith, a new element, and for 
the time a troublesome one, was introduced into 
the infant community. Stephen, a leader or repre- 
sentative of this element, accused of violating the 
* History of Christianity. 



186 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

law of Moses in favor of the Hellenists, was stoned 
to death according to the provisions of that law, 
Saul bsholding and consenting to his martyrdom.* 

Fanatic though he was, however, there was 
doubtless something in this scene — in the nobility 
and heroism of the martyr — which touched the 
heart and conscience of the Hebrew propagandist. 
While travelling toward Damascus, soon after, with 
the purpose of continuing there the work of puri- 
fying the religion of his people by the persecution 
of its enemies, he saw around him a blinding light, 
beheld a vision of the crucified Jesus, and became 
conscious of the peculiar subjective experience 
which led to his conversion. He entered Damascus, 
no longer the advocate of Pharisaic Judaism, but 
a disciple of the Prophet of Nazareth.f 

At what time he signalized his change of faith 
by substituting the Greek name Paul or Paulos 
for his original Hebrew designation, we are not 
informed. He probably assumed the new name 
soon after his conversion, perhaps at the time of 
his baptism. It has been thought by some that 
he adopted it from that of Sergius Paulus,J the 
Roman pro-consul of Cyprus, a place visited by 
Paul early in his missionary career. Sergius Paulus 
was a man of liberal and enlightened mind, a 
friend and protector of the Christians, though he 
was never baptized into the new faith. "Paulos," 
however, was a sort of "nickname" in use among 
the Greeks and Greek-speaking Romans, meaning 

* Acts vii.,viii. 

1 Compare Gal. i., 11-16, with the story of Saul's conver- 
sion in Acts ix., 1-9. 
t See Acts xiii., 7. 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 187 

"the little" ; and it may have been first applied to 
Saul in derision, and finally adopted by him in 
humble recognition of his insignificant size and 
appearance. 

Paul's missionary Labors: Bis Relation to the 
older Apostles. 

About three years elapsed after Paul's conver- 
sion before he began his remarkable career as a 
Christian missionary.* More than half this time 
was spent in Arabia ; the balance, we know not 
where, — except that he returned, first, to Damas- 
cus, f — or in what manner he occupied himself. 
Doubtless, he was to some degree an invalid during 
this period ; and it is probable that he also felt the 
necessity of acquainting himself further with the 
doctrines and traditions of the new faith before he 
appeared as its public advocate. This period of 
retirement was perhaps in part devoted to solitary 
meditation, as was the custom with philosophers 
and the teachers of religion. 

The limits of this discussion will not permit us 
to follow Paul through all the details of his re- 
markable career as an advocate of Christianity. 
After this period of retirement, he visited Peter 
and James at Jerusalem,^ but apparently received 
little encouragement from them in his new labor. 
It is not remarkable that the older apostles should 
hesitate to give full credence to the honesty of 
purpose of their old-time persecutor, especially as 
they regarded his claim to be an apostle — a claim 
which he based, not upon their commission, but 

* Gal. i., 18. t Gal. 1., 17. t Gal. i., 18, 19. 



188 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

upon his own alleged communication with the 
risen Saviour — as a false and indefensible pre- 
tence which conflicted with their proper authority 
as the chosen companions and representatives of 
Jesus. Paul made another brief visit to Jerusalem 
fourteen years later * for the purpose of declaring 
hi3 gospel and maintaining the rights of the Gre- 
cian and non-Jewish converts. He also met Peter 
once at Antioch ; but, beyond this, he appears to 
have had little intercourse with the personal fol- 
lowers of Jesus. 

The Two Parties in the Early Church. 

In the discussion which arose between Peter and 
Paul and their respective adherents, in reference to 
the necessity of submitting to the rites and ordi- 
nances of Judaism as a preliminary to Christian 
baptism, Paul finally announced the principle that 
the acceptance of the gospel abrogated the neces- 
sity for the formal observances required by the 
law,f and claimed complete freedom for the con- 
vert as to the adoption of the rite of circumcision, 
and other points in dispute between the Judaizing 
and the Gentile Christians. The "Acts of the 
Apostles," which evidently perverts the facts of 
history in the interest of its obvious overmaster- 
ing purpose, endeavors to convey the impression 
that compromise and agreement were successfully 
accomplished during the lifetime of the apostles. 
The probability is, however, that the conflict con- 
tinued, and was transmitted to later generations. 

*Gal.ii.,l. 
t Rom. vii., 4-6 ; II. Cor. iii., 6-18 ; Gal. iii , 22-29 ; iv., 5, etc 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 189 

We have Paul's own declaration, on the occasion 
of his interview with Peter at Antioch, that he 
"withstood'' him "to his very face." * 

The evidences of this conflict in the writings of 
Paul, and on the opposing side in the Apocalypse 
and Petrine Epistles, as well as in the writings of 
Hegisippus and others of the early Fathers of the 
Church, are very numerous. In the Book of Rev- 
elations, the followers of Paul are doubtless de- 
nounced under the names of Balaamites and Nico- 
laitines,f and are charged with various offences, 
including the eating of meats offered to idols. 
Paul himself discouraged the use of such meats 
when their character and connection with pagan 
sacrifices were known ; but he allows exceptions in 
certain cases, and doubtless some of his Gentile 
followers were even more liberal than he was in 
their disregard of the injunctions of the Jewish 
law. The author of the Apocalypse, who was 
probably the Apostle John, doubtless regarded 
Paul as the instigator of these "false doctrines" ; 
for he expressly excludes him in his enumeration 
of the twelve apostles,}: and elsewhere commends 
the church at Ephesus because it could not bear 
"those who said they were apostles, and were not, 
but tried them and found them false apostles,"§ — 
an evident allusion to Paul. Heathenism and 
Judaism were world-wide antipodes in the thought 
of the writer of the Apocalypse. The former is 
denounced as the kingdom of Antichrist, and the 
Gentiles exist only to share the final fate of this 
arch enemy of the heavenly kingdom. 

* Gal. ii., 11. t Rev. ii., 14-20. 

t Rev. xxi., 14. §Rev. ii., 2. 



190 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

The early Fathers of the Church generally 
ignored Paul or discredited his authority. Clement 
of Rome and Polycarp possibly allude to him, once 
each, in passages of doubtful authenticity.* Papias, 
who wrote about the middle of the second century, 
nowhere mentions Paul or any of his followers, 
though he speaks of the other apostles. Justin 
Martyr, who must have been acquainted with the 
labors and writings of Paul, studiously avoids any 
allusion to him; and Hegisippus refers to him, 
though not mentioning his name, only to contradict 
one of his assertions. He quotes against Paul's 
statement, "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man, the 
things which God hath prepared for those that 
love him,"f the seemingly contradictory assertion 
of Jesus, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see; 
and your ears, for they hear."J The earlier recog- 
nized leaders in the Church appear to have sympa- 
thized rather with the Judaizing Christians than 
with the followers of Paul. In the final result, as 
we know, there were compromise and reconciliation, 
and upon essentially Pauline ground; but Paul 
himself obtained little recognition from the early 
Church. The Catholic hierarchy appropriated his 
theology, but traced back its credentials to the 
name and authority of his antagonist, the Apostle 
Peter. Of the two parties, the Petrine or Judaizing 
Christians, early known as the Nazarenes, and 

*The Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians is adjudged 
by the author of Supernatural Religion and other able 
critics to be largely interpolated. The passage in Poly- 
carp's Epistle to the Philippians in which Paul's name 
occurs is found only in a Latin text of doubtful reliability. 
1 1. Cor. ii., 9. % Matt, xiii., 16. 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 191 

afterward as the Ebionites, whose tenets and pecu 
liarities will be further described in a subsequeD 
lecture, were finally absorbed into the great cur 
rent of orthodox Christian life or died out foi 
want of a further raison d'&re ; * while the extreme 
Paulinists evolved into the heretical sect of the 
Marcionites, who, with their Gnostic coadjutors 
ultimately succumbed also to the widening and 
deepening current of Christian Orthodoxy. 

The Conclusion of Paul's Labors; his Death. 

The missionary labors of Paul extended to all 
the great capitals of the west, — to Antioch, Ephe 
sus, Athens, Corinth, and Rome, to the barbarian 
neighborhoods of Lystra, Galatia, and Melita. We 
hear of him in Cyprus, Salamis, and Paphos, in 
Pamphylia in Asia Minor, at Iconium, Philippi, 
and Thessalonica. Everywhere, he found colonies 
of Jews and proselytes. He taught in their syna- 
gogues, converted many, especially of the Hellenic 
proselytes, and established congregations of the 
new religion. Often, he met with encouragement ; 
oftener, perhaps, with distrust, abuse, or violent 
opposition. "Of the Jews," he says, "five times 
received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I 
beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I 
suffered shipwreck, a day and a night I have 

* The growth of a Christian Orthodoxy, based upon the 
dogmas of the miraculous birth of Jesus and of his prac- 
tical equality with God, soon put an end to Christian pros- 
elyting among the Jews, since these dogmas were abhor- 
rent to and wholly irreconcilable with the principles of 
Judaism. The sects who rejected these dogmas were de- 
nounced as heretics, and ultimately excluded from the 
Christian communion. Thus was Jesus crucified anew in 
the person of his own followers, in the name of the ideal 
Christ. 



192 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

been in the deep. In journey ings often, in perils 
by my own countrymen, in perils in the sea, in 
perils among false brethren ; in weariness and pain- 
fulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, 
in fastings often, in cold and nakedness."* 

Charged with stirring up public dissensions, and 
carried finally to Rome for trial by reason of his ap- 
peal to his rights as a Roman citizen, he remained 
there about three years, and then passed forever 
from the light of history. The traditions of his 
subsequent journey ings and labors in Spain, Gaul, 
and Britain, are, doubtless, wholly unreliable. The 
probable termination of his stay in Rome nearly 
approximates to the period of the Christian perse- 
cutions, instigated by the infamous Nero. Some 
have supposed that both Paul and Peter suffered 
martyrdom in Rome at this time. It is hardly 
probable, however, that Peter ever visited Rome 
at all. Tradition declares that Paul suffered 
death by the sword instead of the ordinary modes 
of crucifixion or burning, — a privilege to which he 
would have been entitled by reason of kls Roman 
citizenship. All this, however, is purely conject- 
ural : we really know nothing certainly in regard 
to the time or manner of his death. f 

The Doctrines of Paul: his Christology. 

It remains now for us to consider the character 
of Paul's teaching, and its influence upon the sub- 
sequent development of the Christian faith. In 

* II. Cor. xi., 24-27. 
tSee Baur, History of the Church in the First Thr«* 
Christian Centuries ; also, Renan, "The Antichrist" (vol. iv. 
of The Origins of Christianity). 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 193 

his Christology there is a manifest advance from 
the earlier tradition of the Synoptical Gospels. "In 
trying to understand this phase of his opinion," 
says Prof. Allen, "we must bear in mind that 
Paul had never known Jesus as a man, — 'after the 
flesh,' as he phrases it. If he had, we should 
probably have never known anything of his Chris- 
tology." In his earlier writings, we have the clear 
expression of his belief, held in common with the 
other disciples, that Jesus had "risen from the 
dead," and ascended to paradise, soon to return 
and establish his eternal kingdom upon the regen- 
erated earth. "The Lord himself shall descend 
from heaven with a shout," he says, "with the 
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God : 
and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we 
that are alive and remain shall be caught up to- 
gether with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord 
in the air; and so shall we ever be with the 
Lord."* 

Paul appears to accept the synoptical doctrine 
of a final judgment and eternal punishment for 
the sinner, f though certain passages in his writings 
have been held by some to suggest the belief in the 
ultimate salvation of all men. "Jesus," he says, 
"shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty 

*I. Thess. iv., 16,17. 
tThe punishment, however, is characterized as "eternal 
destruction" or "eternal death" instead of "eternal fire" 
or "torment," and may not necessarily indicate a belief 
in eternal conscious suffering. The "eternal life" on earth 
in the heavenly kingdom for the righteous appears to be 
contrasted with the "eternal death" of the wicked See 
Romans ii., 5-14 ; iii., 5-8, 22 ; vi., 23 ; viii., 9-14, 29, 30 ; 
ix., 14-18, 27, 28 ; x., 1-18 ; xi., 13, 14, 20-22 ; xiii., 4, 5 ; xiv., 
10-12; I. Cor. i., 18-27; iii., 12-17; vi., 9-11; ix., 2'i-27 : 
II. Cor. ii., 15, 16; v., 10; xiii., 5-7; Gal. vi., 6-9; Phil. 
i., 27-30; iii., 17-21 ; Col. iii., 12, 25; II. Thess. ii., 8-12. 



194 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them 
that know not God, . . . who shall be punished 
with everlasting destruction from the presence of 
the Lord, and from the glory of his power." * As 
the earliest belief in the advent of the heavenly 
kingdom was gradually dimmed by disappointment 
and long-waiting for the anticipated eatastrophe, 
Paul's views of Christ become less objective and 
real, more subjective and mystical. " In the Cor- 
inthians," says Allen, "Christ is first of all a spirit- 
ual Lord and Chief, 'the head of every man,' soul 
of a body having many members, the mystic 
'rock' of the old Covenant, the source of doctrine 
and authority." "Even though we have known 
Christ after the flesh," says the apostle, "yet now 
know we him no more."f He is represented as 
the deliverer, who has "redeemed us from the curse 
of the law." He is the "second Adam," who gives 
us life, as the first Adam brought us death. 

Later, Paul's thought of Christ becomes still 
more vague and visionary, retaining scarcely a 
feature of the man Jesus of the simple narrative 
of the Synoptical Gospels. He is a type of the 
divine energy, — a personified idea, similar to the 
wisdom of the Cabalists and the Apocryphal 
writers ; "the brightness of the Father's glory, and 
express image of his person"; "in the form of 
God, though not claiming equality with God"; 
"image of the invisible, first-born of the whole 
creation." Here we are on the very verge of the 
mystic doctrine of the Logos, which subsequently 
appears in the Fourth Gospel, and finds its exagger- 
* n. Thess. i., 6-9. t II. Cor. v., 16. 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 190 

ated reflection in the mysticism of the Gnostic 
schools. 

Paul's Doctrine of the Atonement. 

Though Paul himself does not expressly teach 
the doctrine of a sacrificial atonement, — a doctrine 
which, as we have seen, is wholly absent from the 
Synoptical Gospels, — we may yet trace the first de- 
cided steps toward its development in his writings. 
"Paul," says Matthew Arnold, "knows nothing of 
the sacrificial atonement : what Paul knows of is 
a reconciling sacrifice.* The true substitute for 
Paul is not the substitute of Christ in men's stead 
as a victim on the cros3 to God's offended j ustice : 
it is the substitute by which the believer in his 
own person repeats Christ's dying to sin."f Yet 
in the language, and doubtless also in the thought 
of Paul, we cannot fail to note an evident step in 
the direction of the doctrine of the atonement. 
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, of which Paul is 
almost certainly not the author, this doctrine is 
announced in much plainer terms than we can 
discover in any of the genuine Pauline Epistles; 
while it reaches its full development in the Fourth 
Gospel, wherein Christ appears as a substitute for 
the paschal lamb, an atoning sacrifice for human 
sins. The manifest exaggeration of Paul's doctrine 
of the atonement by both Catholic and Protestant 
theologians is doubtless a legacy of misunderstand- 
ing derived from the misinterpretations of Aug- 
ustine. Writing in the fourth and fifth centuries 
of our era and trained in the rigid school of Latin 

•Seell. Cor. v., 14-21. 
t "Saint Paul and Protestantism," by Matthew Arnold. 



196 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

scholasticism, probably neither speaking nor writ- 
ing the Greek language, he appears to have put 
his own exact and unyielding dogmatical concep- 
tions in the place of the Oriental and symbolical 
expressions of the apostle to the Gentiles, thus 
petrifying symbol into dogma and substituting the 
rigid distortion of death for the suggestive and 
flowing life of the original thought. 

The Doctrine of Salvation by Faith. 

Throughout the later and more important period 
of its development, the religion of the Hebrews 
made righteousness the foundation stone of its 
spiritual edifice. The sense of personal sin, of 
violation of the law of God, was ever present with 
the true follower of Judaism. Even the formali- 
ties of latter-day Pharisaism did not wholly obscure 
the strong ethical principle involved in the ancient 
Hebrew faith and pre-eminently emphasized in 
the writings of the prophets. With Paul, this 
sense of "the exceeding sinfulness of sin," this 
striving after personal righteousness, was probably 
always present. In it, doubtless, lay the secret of 
his sudden conversion. In it, also, lay the root of 
his Christian theology. As a Jew, the escape from 
sin and its penalties had been possible to him only 
through strict and rigid obedience to tL© law. As 
a Christian, emancipated from the law, he found 
the means of escape in the acceptance of the doc- 
trine of "salvation by faith." * 

Sin, to Paul, was something more than the nega- 
tion of good, a mere phase of moral experience • 

*See Rom. iv.-riii. ; Gal. ii.-vi., etc. 



TIIE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 197 

it was ctri objective reality. It was an actual entity 
which obtained a lodgement in man, and controlled 
his actions in antagonism to all that was right, — in 
antagonism, even, to his own will. "Now, then," h9 
says, "it is no more I that do it, but sin (apapria) 
that dwelleth in me."* Paul had assimilated 
from the Oriental philosophies that doctrine of the 
eternal antagonism between matter and God, be- 
tween body and spirit, which is still more clearly 
expressed in the mystical dualism of the Fourth 
Gospel, and reached its highest contemporaneous 
development in the doctrines of the various Gnostic 
sects. With this Oriental dualism, he had com- 
bined the Hebrew notion of the inheritance of sin 
from the original transgression of Adam. He had 
also derived from the Eastern or Greek philoso- 
phies the metaphysical conception of the three- 
fold nature of man, comprising body, soul, and 
spirit, f He entified or objectified these metaphysi- 
cal conceptions, and they became to him realities. 

The Ethics of Paul : Bis Doctrine of the 
Crucifixion. 

The ethics of the Gospels were purely ideal and 
persona], adapted to the perfect society of the ideal 
kingdom of heaven, aiming to prepare individuals 
for it by the closest possible approximation to its 
conditions under the existing social order. The 
associations of Jesu3 were limited and personal, 
and his ethical system bore the impress of these 
environing limitations. The associations of Paul, 
on the contrary, were varied and cosmopolitan. 

*Rom. vii.,17. 
1 1. Cor. xv., 35-54, especially verses 40, 44, 45. 



193 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

His ethics, therefore, were naturally social and or- 
ganic, less personal and ideal than those of Jesus, 
and adapted to the existing relations of a more 
varied and complex society. Nevertheless, his 
appeal to men, though on a less ideal plane, was 
essentially direct and personal, based as it was 
upon his own strong conviction of sin. He did 
not speak to men as one above them, but as one 
of them. His conception of Jesus was to him, and 
through him to others, an inspiration to right living, 
chiefly because he saw in the Master "a man tempted 
in all respects like as we are, yet without sin." 

Paul's doctrine of "salvation by faith," accord- 
ingly, was no hard and fast dogma, as inter- 
preted by the preachers of the orthodox creed. He 
preached "Christ and him crucified," indeed, as 
the foundation of his faith; but, when he says, 
"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; 
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live 
by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave 
himself for me,"* we perceive that he regarded 
the crucifixion as somewhat more than a personal 
and objective fact, — as a symbol, rather, of a sub- 
jective experience of Jesus which might be re- 
peated in every human soul. Christ, in his con- 
ception, as Matthew Arnold has so ably shown, 
was already "crucified in the flesh" before the final 
agony of Calvary : he was crucified in the process 
of putting under foot the temptations of the flesh, 
— those tendencies to sin with which he was beset, 
in common with all other men, but which he, 
unlike all other men, had successfully overcome. 
*Gal.ii.,20. 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 199 

The "faith" advocated by Paul, therefore, was 
no mere acceptance of irrational dogma, but the 
surety that by a like process of subjecting the 
body to the spirit, the lusts of the flesh to the 
demands of an ideal righteousness, all men, like 
him, could be "crucified with Christ," and yet live 
the higher and nobler life of the spiritual man. 
His conception of spirituality is no mere product 
of a sublimated mysticism : it is rooted firmly in 
the ethical principle. It is in this sense of spirit- 
ual unity with Christ through triumph over sin 
that he exultingly exclaims, "The Spirit itself 
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the 
children of God, and, if children, then heirs, — 
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, — that, if 
we suffer with him, we may also be glorified 
together."* 

Paul's Dualism.— Predestination and .Election* — 
The Secret of Jesus. 

There is much in Paul's phraseology, doubtless, 
that gives comfort to the devotees of modern 
Orthodoxy. The philosophical statement of the 
Calvinistic doctrine of predestination and election 
is certainly there.f The dualistic conception of 
the eternal conflict between the flesh and the 
spirit, the antagonism of God and matter, an- 
nounced by Paul, is not consistent with a pro- 
found philosophy of the universe, or even with 
an intelligent theism. The God of Paul is less 

♦Romans viii., 16, 17. 
t Romans viii., 29, 30: xi., 6-7; II. Cor. xiii., 5, 6; Col. ill.. 
12; I. Thess. v., 9 ; II. The*s. ii., 10-12. The first chapter of 
Bphesians, doubtfully Pauline, contains a yet clearer state- 
ment of this doctrine. 



200 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

fatherly and more despotic than the heavenly 
Father of Jesus. In other respects, however, he 
approximated closely to the thought of the Naza- 
rene prophet. The "dead works" which he dis- 
credited were not alone or chiefly the natural fruits 
of righteous endeavor, but rather the formal 
observances of the ceremonial law.* The "faith" 
that he advocated was faith that the experience 
and triumph of Jesus were possible, in some 
degree, to all men ; that any man, Jew or Gentile, 
bond or free, by being crucified with Jesus, by 
subjecting the selfish and animal impulses of his 
nature to the moral and spiritual demands of the 
higher law, as Jesu3 had done, would be raised 
with him into the higher life of the spirit. In this 
belief, which based salvation upon inner motive 
rather than outer act, consciously or unconsciously 
he caught the very secret of Jesus, and justified 
his claim to the title of an apostle. 

Paul the Type of Protestantism.— His Relation 
to existing Society. 

If in our present study we have not discovered 
the Paul of the Puritan theology, neither, I think, 
have we found precisely the Paul of Matthew Ar- 
nold. If the Christ of Paul is seen to be an ideal 
Christ rather than the man of Nazareth, so in lesser 
degree, perhaps, the Paul of Matthew Arnold is 
an idealized Paul. If the apostle to the Gentiles 
clothes his philosophy in Orientalisms, as the great 
critic declares, the philosophy is nevertheless there 
beneath the garment, and in it the germs of much 
♦Romans ill., 20, 27, 28, etc. 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 201 

that is harsh and irrational in the later Christian 
creeds. As he stands revealed to the rational 
investigator, Paul is, I think, Mr. Arnold to the 
contrary notwithstanding, the natural prototype 
and apostle of Protestantism, even of dissenting 
Protestantism. The great apostle would have been 
quite out of place in the fold of a conventional 
body of believers like the modern Church of Eng- 
land. He protested against the close communion 
and legal literalism of the Judaizing Christians. 
He protested against the formal and external 
righteousness of the ceremonial law. His protests 
were always "vigorous," if not "rigorous"; and 
division and sectarianism followed in their wake, 
as they have followed the later protests of Luther 
and Calvin. 

In the Christianity of Paul, the primitive social 
communism of the Gospels was already somewhat 
modified.* We hear less of a community of goods, 
less of the exaltation of poverty. With a wider 
social horizon, a less ideal and more practical 
ethical system than that of Jesus, Paul rendered 
himself liable to a more exacting and less favor- 
able criticism by the exigent social standards of a 
later time and a higher civilization. Like Jesus, 
he uttered no word against the existing institution 
of slavery. He even recognized its legality and 
binding force by returning to Philemon the slave 
Onesimus, though with the qualifying injunction 
to receive him as a brother in Christ as well as a 



♦There is a suggestion of it in II. Cor. viii., 10-15, and in 
the references to the agape, or "love-feast," the primi- 
tive communal meal of the early Christians (I. Cor. xi., 
17-34, etc.). 



202 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

legal bond-servant.* His views of marriage and 
of woman were ignoble and unsocial, bearing the 
degrading impress of the Orientalism which gave 
them birth, and which tinged all his philosophy, f 
The pessimistic conception of the existing world, 
implicit in the thought of Jesus, was explicit in 
the dualistic philosophy of Paul. Yet, with all his 
faults and imperfections, Paul as well as Jesus was 
a man of men. 

Under the influence of the great apostle and his 
co-laborers, Christianity burst the bonds of nation- 
ality and race, and became a movement which 
aimed at nothing less than the spiritual conquest 
of the world. The religion of Jesus, as taught by 
Paul, still contained within it an emphasis and 
purpose supremely ethical. It retained the doc- 
trine that man is to be judged by motive rather 
than by act, by inward intention rather than 
outward and formal observances. In this concep- 
tion was latent the inevitable and logical sequence 
of a belief in human equality, ultimating in the 
reorganization of society under the form of a 
spiritual democracy; and in the promise of this 
social revolution lay the secret of the eager accept- 
ance of the new religion by the masses of the 
toiling poor. 

Free from the necessary limitations of the ethnic 
religions, emancipated from Judaism through the 
influence of Paul, Christianity contained within 
itself some of the germs of a universal religion. 
To what extent these germs were fertilized by 

* Philemon. See also Col. iii., 22. 
1 1. Cor. vii., xi.; Col. iii., 18, etc. 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF PAUL 203 

contact with a congenial soil and atmosphere, in 
what manner their growth was thwarted and pre- 
vented by the assimilation of incongruous elements 
from the surrounding Paganism and by their own 
internal imperfections, it is our purpose to consider 
hereafter. 



vni. 

THE CHURCH W THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

Duration and General Characteristics of the 
Period. 

The apostolic period in the history of the Chris- 
tian Church is commonly reckoned to extend from 
the death of Jesus to the end of the first Christian 
century.* During the early portion of this period, 
as we have seen, a new element was intro uced 
into the Christian faith, — the element of univer- 
salism, as distinguished from the narrower Hebra- 
ism of the Judaizing followers of Peter and the 
original Galilean apostles. Doubtless, this feature 
may be shown to have a natural relationship and 
correspondence with much that had been latent in 
the thought of Jesus; but, if the propagation of 
the new doctrine had been left entirely with his 
personal followers and disciples, it is doubtful 
whether Christianity would ever have become 
more than an insignificant Jewish sect, which 
would have ceased to exist when the popular 
expectation of the immediate coming of the 

* The necessary limitations of these papers will prevent 
a strictly chronological treatment of the history of the 
early Church. It will be our aim, however, to deviate 
from this method only when the requirements of a concise 
topical consideration of certain branches of our subject 
render such deviations inevitable. 



THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE 205 

heavenly kingdom had succumbed to the chill of 
weary waiting and successive disappointments. 

The history of the growing faith, from the time 
of Paul to its final secular triumph and recogni- 
tion by Constantine, is the history of the contin- 
ued conflict and final reconciliation of its Pauline 
and Judaistic elements ; of the rise of Gnosticism 
and the conflict with this and other so-called 
"heresies " ; * of the development of its Christology 
and dogmatic theology, culminating in the deifica- 
tion of Jesus; and of the evolution of the forms 
and ceremonies which ultimately constituted the 
ritual and sacraments of the Christian Church. 
Unless the circumstances and consequences of the 
conflict between the Hebrew and the Hellenic or 
Gentile parties are kept constantly in mind, the 
student of this intermediate phase of the develop- 
ment of the new religion will miss much of the 
significance of the leading features in its history. 
The mediation between these two parties was 
finally effected through the influence of the Alex- 
andrian philosophy of Philo, the original purpose 
of which, in its ante-Christian phases, as we have 
seen, was to demonstrate the harmony of Platon- 
ism and Orientalism with the Mosaic law. J It 
was, therefore, the natural mediator between these 
diverse elements in Christianity. The documen- 
tary evidences of this reconciliation are found in 
the Acts of the Apostles, the tendency of which is 

*The word "heresy" (Gr. alpecrig-) had originally no op- 
probrious signification, hut meant simply the "choice" 
or "accepted belief" of an opposing controversialist. In 
Greek philosophical writings, it was sometimes used to 
designate a philosophical principle or a particular sect or 
school of philosophy 

t See Lecture II. 



206 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

toward a modified Paulinism, in the non-Pauline 
Epistle to the Hebrews, in the Epistle of Barnabas, 
preserved to us among the so-called apocryphal 
writings, and other documents of like character. 
The chief witness on behalf of Paulinism is the 
great apostle himself, as represented in his authen- 
tic writings. The opposite side of the controversy 
is presented in the Epistle of James and the 
Apocalypse ; in the writings generally of the early 
Fathers of the Church, and particularly in the 
pseudo-Clementine Homilies, to which we shall 
have occasion to refer hereafter. The final tri- 
umph of the Alexandrian mediation is attested by 
the reception of the Logos epic as authoritative 
scripture in the latter part of the second century. 

Early Bites and Ceremonies: Baptism. 

With the final accomplishment of the reconcil- 
iation through the deification of Jesus, the rites 
and sacraments of the Church, which had grad- 
ually taken form after the subversion of the more 
marked Judaizing features of apostolic Christi- 
anity, were elevated into greater prominence. It 
is our purpose now to trace the natural origin 
and development of some of these ceremonies. 
The rite of baptism early came to be regarded as 
the chief symbol and sacrament of the Christian 
faith, assuming an importance and significance 
akin to circumcision in the ordinances of Judaism. 
Baptism was probably adopted by the Jews from 
Persian or Chaldean sources,* and was adminis- 

*The name "Sabean," often applied to the ancient Per- 
sians and Chaldeans, means, simply, "the immerser" or 
"the washer" ; and ceremonial ablution was an important 
rite of the Zoroastrian and Magian religions. 



THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE 207 

tiered by such pre-Christian sects as the Essenes 
and the disciples of John. In its original Jewish 
form, it differed little, save in its symbolical sig- 
nification, from an ordinary bath. It was intended 
both to secure bodily cleanliness and to symbolize 
at the same time the removal of the stains of sin 
from the soul. Among the Jews and early Chris- 
tians of Palestine, those submitting to this rite 
came down to some convenient place by the side 
of the Jordan River, sometimes singly, but oftener 
in families, and having completely disrobed, as is 
not unfrequently the public and promiscuous cus- 
tom in Eastern countries, even at the present day, 
they plunged into the river, and entirely sub- 
merged themselves in its waters. 

In its earliest Christian phase, baptism was only 
administered as a sign of voluntary repentance 
and admission to the membership of the Christian 
community. It was not administered to children 
or to those of any age who were born into the new 
faith. With the decline of Judaistic tendencies 
among the early Christians, however, baptism 
came to be deemed an essential symbol of the 
Christian religion, and was therefore thencefor- 
ward administered to all adult believers in con- 
nection with a public profession of their faith. 
The earliest baptismal formula in use among the 
Palestinian Christians was, "I immerse you into 
the name of the Lord Jesus." The familiar trin- 
itarian recognition of the "Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit" did not come into use before the sec- 
ond century. The Greek word (/?a7rriC«), which 
*he translators of the New Testament have appro- 



208 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

priated without translating, means simply and uni- 
formly "to immerse." This was unquestionably 
the original form of the rite. In localities where 
the facilities for complete immersion were want- 
ing, however, there seems to have been an occa- 
sional substitution, at a very early day, of the 
shower-bath, — not a mere sprinkling, as in later 
times, but the use of a sufficient quantity of water 
to envelop the entire person.* In its earliest 
Christian phase, baptism appears to have been re- 
garded as a symbol not only of spiritual purifica 
tion, but also of the resurrection. The sins of the 
flesh were washed away, the "carnal body" was 
buried beneath the waters, and rose from them 
into the new life of the spiritual man. As Chris- 
tianity assimilated Gentile converts, and advanced 
westward to cooler climates, and especially to 
Rome, where the people were familiar with the 
ceremony of lustration, the rite lost more and more 
its primitive character. At last, the idea of physi- 
cal cleanliness remained wholly in abeyance ; and 
it retained only its spiritual and symbolical sig- 
nification. It was not, however, until long after 
the Christianization of the Roman Empire that 
"sprinkling" was generally substituted for immer- 
sion.! 

Subsequent to the early part of the second cen- 

* See the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, where this 
form of the rite is expressly authorized. It is noteworthy, 
however, that the substitute is not called "baptism" (im- 
mersion), but simply "pouring." 

t In a like manner, the sacrificial rite among the Zoroas- 
trians degenerated into a mere symbolical presentation of 
a single hair of a heifer in the presence of the sacred flame 
instead of the immolation of the entire animal. The East- 
ern Church still recognizes immersion as the proper form 
of the baptismal ceremony. 



THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE 209 

tury, after the organization of the Christian con- 
gregations had been perfected, and the three orders 
of deacons, presbyters, and bishops were fully rec- 
ognized, the rite of baptism could be adminis- 
tered only by the bishop or presiding elder of the 
church. Usually there was but one place for bap- 
tism in each town or city, and that was never in 
a church. There was but one time for the admin- 
istration of the rite in every year, — the period be- 
tween Easter and Pentecost. Baptism was always 
administered at midnight, and never in public. In 
an outer chamber, the converts, of either sex, dis- 
robed to but a single garment, and, turning toward 
the region of the sunset, uttered together a defi- 
ance of the evil one, saying, "I renounce thee, 
Satan, and all thy works, all thy pomp, and all thy 
service." They then turned toward the east, and 
by the utterance of an appropriate verbal formula 
recognized the essential doctrines of the Christian 
faith. Passing into an inner chamber, in the pres- 
ence of a deacon or deaconess, the entire company 
disrobed completely, and stood up naked to be 
questioned by the bishop. Satisfactory answers 
having been given, their bare limbs and bodies 
were rubbed with oil from head to foot. They 
then plunged into the water, were again anointed 
after emerging from it, were clothed in white 
gowns symbolical of their purification, and re- 
ceived the "kiss of peace" from the bishop and a 
taste of milk and honey. They afterwards recog- 
nized their new communion by repeating for the 
first time the Lord's Prayer.* 

♦For this account of the origin and earliest form of the 
baptismal ceremony, reliance has been placed, in the main, 



210 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

Many of the leading features of this ceremonial 
were evidently of Eastern and probably of Persian 
origin. Our modern sticklers for "immersion" 
would hardly advocate the adoption of the original 
custom in its entirety. With the lapse of time, 
many changes have affected the administration of 
this rite. A magical efficacy came to be assigned 
to it at an early day ; and even infants were re- 
garded as doomed to eternal misery, if dying un- 
baptized. To forestall this doom, the rite was 
sometimes administered to them with most un- 
seemly haste. At the present time, instead of the 
complete bath, we have usually the substitute of 
sprinkling with a few drops of water. Instead of 
anointing the entire body with oil, we have the 
application of a few drops only, as in the Catholic 
ceremonial, or the total disuse of inunction, as in 
nearly all the Protestant sects. Instead of the 
bishop alone, any clergyman may administer the 
rite. Instead of making adults the only recipients 
of it, as in the earliest times, it is now usually ad- 
ministered in childhood. In regard to this and 
to other ritualistic observances, however, we of 
the liberal faith will doubtless agree that letter 
and form profit little, and that a custom which 
has come to be regarded as a magical rite rather 
than a natural symbol of spiritual purification is 
better honored in the breach than in the observ- 
ance. 

Religions Services: The Lord's Day. 

The earliest Christian congregations had no 

upon the interesting testimony of Dean Stanley in Chris- 
tian Institutions. Care has been taken, however, to make 
comparison with ot^er reliable authorities. 



THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE 211 

church-buildings or houses devoted exclusively to 
religious assemblies. Meetings for worship were 
commonly held in private dwellings. The usual 
and most convenient room for the assembly was 
the triclinium, or large dining-hall, found in nearly 
every house of the Roman period. Around this 
room were arranged cushions or low divans, upon 
which the worshippers sat or reclined during the 
reading of the Scriptures — the Old Testament only 
— and the formal address or exhortation. A 
raised seat at one end of the room, the cathedra, 
or chair, was occupied by the reader or minister. 
The custom of meeting on the "Lord's day," or 
first day of the week, for religious services and 
social converse, is of early origin, dating from 
the apostolic period. At this time, however, the 
day had acquired none of the peculiar sanctity 
attaching to the Jewish Sabbath, and was never, 
as in later times, confounded with it. The 
seventh day was still observed, according to the 
mandates of the law, by the Jewish Christians. 
The earliest Christian writers outside the limited 
circle of the Nazarenes, who compare the two 
days, regard the Lord's day, not as a continuance 
of the Sabbath, but as an institution of an essen- 
tially different character. Christianity, according 
to their view, abrogated the Hebrew command- 
ments. Owing to its principle of universalism, 
it regarded all places as alike sacred and all days 
as alike holy and dedicated to the service of God. 
Ignatius of Antioch contrasted the Lord's day 
with the Sabbath as something done away with. 
Justin Martyr says that Christianity requires, not 



212 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

one particular Sabbath, but a perpetual Sabbath. 
The Christians were regarded as atheists by their 
enemies, because they had no temples, no images, 
no altars, no festivals, no holy days. The nature 
of their baptismal ceremony and the privacy of 
their meetings threw an air of secrecy and con- 
cealment around their religion, which caused it to 
be viewed with distrust and suspicion by intelli- 
gent adherents of the older faiths. 

The Agape, or "Liore Feast."— Forerunner ©f 
the Kucharist. 

In the same room, the triclinium, after sunset, 
the congregation again gathered, reclining as 
before around the sides of the room, to partake of 
the agape, or "love feast."* This prototype of 
the sacrament of the eucharistf was originally 
merely a commemorative social meal of a com- 
munal character, to which each contributed a por- 
tion of food as to a picnic. Bread and wine were 
essential elements in this pleasant social repast; 
but other articles of food, particularly fish, which 
accompanied bread in the ancient meal as com- 
monly as cheese or butter does with us, were usu- 
ally present. The poor, who were unable to con- 
tribute to the repast, were always welcome to 
partake with the others. This common meal was 
doubtless a survival of the simple communism of 
Jesus and the apostles. In the "paschal feast" 
or "last supper" of the Master with his disciples, 
which this repast was intended to commemorate, 
the wine was doubtless served in large bowls, and 

*Gr. aycnrij. fGr. evxaptOTia?, "thanksgiving." 



THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE 213 

mixed with water, as was the universal custom of 
the time. The bread was the unleavened bread 
of the passover, and fish and perhaps other simple 
articles of food were doubtless present. 

At the conclusion of the "love feast" as well as 
at the breaking up of the earlier meetings, the 
company parted, exchanging the "kiss of peace." 
In some congregations, this interchange of saluta- 
tions was confined to those of the same sex; in 
others, no distinction was observed. We have 
numerous evidences in the New Testament Epis- 
tles and writings of the Fathers that these social 
repasts, at first held daily, not unfrequently became 
scenes of boisterous revelry and undue license.* 
These abuses brought upon the churches the con- 
demnation of the apostles, and doubtless operated 
to lessen the frequency of the communal meals, 
which ultimately degenerated into the monthly 
celebration of the eucharist. With the common 
acceptance of the conception of Christ as the 
paschal lamb, — the sacrifice substituted for the 
offering of the Jewish passover, — a conception 
which, though suggested by Paul, we first find 
fully developed in the Fourth Gospel, the com- 
memorative repast took on a new and more solemn 
character. From the Oriental and symbolical 
expressions of Jesus, — "This is my body," "This 
is my blood," — the bald literalism of the scholastic 
theologians subsequently developed the dogmas 
of transubstantiation and consubstantiation, giv- 
ing rise to that notable metaphysical controversy 
which in after generations distracted and divided 
*I. Cor. xi., 20-34. 



214 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

the Christian Church. As in the case of baptism, 
we have in the modern ceremony of the commun- 
ion an instance of degeneration, transfiguration, 
and survival, accompanied by the assumption of 
a magical efficacy as pertaining to the rite, which 
leaves it with but little resemblance either in 
form or idea to the primitive custom of the apos- 
tolic age. 

Origin of the Priesthood: Clerical Orders. 

"In the first beginning of Christianity," says 
Dean Stanley, "there was no such institution as 
the clergy.'* The earliest Christian communities 
were not organized with any view to permanence. 
Believing in the near approach of the revolution 
which would substitute a new and divine social 
order for that then existing, the converts came 
together naturally for mutual sympathy and en- 
couragement, with few of the formalities of an 
established religious organization. The ecclesia,* 
or church, was thus in its earliest form merely a 
communal assembly of believers. Such was the 
essential character of the apostolic community at 
Jerusalem, and of the earliest churches founded 
by Paul and his co-laborers. Their simple relig- 
ious ceremonies were probably patterned upon 
those of the Jewish synagogue, but were originally 
less formal and elaborate than the synagogue 
services. 

In these primitive assemblies, the apostles and 
immediate followers of Jesus at first had a certain 

*Gr. e/c/c/l^ff/'a, "the called," "the elect." In Athens, 
this term was applied to an assembly of citizens or free* 
men, summoned by the crier, for consultation upon mat- 
ters of public import. 



THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE 215 

natural pre-eminence. As time passed, and the 
need for a complete organization became impera- 
tive, the older members of the various communi- 
ties came to be looked up to for counsel and in- 
struction. Each congregation finally had its coun- 
cil of presbyters* or elders, and these in turn 
chose one of their number as a presiding officer. 
In the earliest writings of the Fathers, the terms 
rpeofivrepog, "elder," and kmoKonogfi. "bishop," 
were used interchangeably, and indicated no divi- 
sion of offices or functions. The term dtaaovog, 
or deacon, J was also used originally in precisely 
the same manner as were "elder" and "bishop." 
As found in the New Testament and earliest writ- 
ings of the Fathers, these terms nowhere denote 
the division of the clergy into distinct orders, as 
in later times. Nothing like the modern episco- 
pacy existed before the second century. 

"The deacons," says Dean Stanley, "were the 
most original of these institutions, being invented, 
as it were, for the special emergency of the church 
at Jerusalem. The presbyters were the 'sheikhs' 
or elders, — those who by seniority had reached 
the first rank, — as in the Jewish synagogue. The 
bishops were the same, viewed under another as- 
pect, — the 'inspectors,' the 'auditors,' of the 
Greek churches." § The church organization is 

*Gr. irpeoflvTepog, "elder." 

t Literally, an overseer or watcher. 

J Literally, a servant: from 6 la and nSvig, one who is 
dusty from running, or one who has to do with dust and 
dirt. 

% Christian Institutions,— by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, 
Dean of Westminster,— which see for an interesting ac- 
count of the development of ecclesiastical ceremonies and 
sacraments. 



216 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

thus seen to have been in its inception purely 
"congregational," or democratic, recognizing no 
pretended authority of a priestly or magical char- 
acter, such as is involved in the dogma of the 
apostolic succession. Early in the second century, 
the krtioKonoQ, or bishop, was elevated above the 
elders and deacons, and concentrated many of 
their former functions into his own office and per- 
son. "He alone could baptize, consecrate, confirm, 
ordain, marry, preach, absolve."* There thus 
happened in the Christian communities what 
would occur in a club or society which should 
hand over the entire management of its affairs to 
a committee, which in turn should abdicate in 
favor of its chairman, so that he could say, "I, in 
my own person, am the association." 

Before the conversion of the Roman Empire, 
bishops, presbyters, and deacons were chosen by 
a show of hands by the entire congregation. This, 
however, was largely a formality, — a survival of 
the primitive democracy of the earliest communi- 
ties, the choice having previously been agreed 
upon by the council of elders. The entire pro- 
ceeding was not unlike that of a ward caucus or 
political convention in our American cities. After 
being thus chosen, the bishops were ordained, 
either by the ceremony of breathing, which sym- 
bolized the transmission of the nvev/ia, or Holy 
Spirit, as in the African churches; or by lifting 
up the hands in the Oriental form of benediction, 
as in the Eastern or Asiatic churches; or by 
touching the dead hand of the predecessor in office, 
* Christian Institutions. 



THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE 217 

as in the Armenian church ; or by the transmis- 
sion of relics or the staff of office, as in the early 
Keltic churches; or by the imp6sition of hands, 
as in the Roman and later Protestant churches of 
the West. All these practices imply the survival 
of superstitions and fetichistic notions which orig- 
inated in the primitive barbarism and ignorance 
of prehistoric times. 

Growth of the Hierarchy. Importations from 
Paganism. 

The limits of this discussion will not permit us 
to trace in detail the subsequent development and 
later modifications of the Christian hierarchy. 
With the establishment and temporal recognition 
of the Catholic Church came the fiction of apos- 
tolic succession, and the ultimate transfer to the 
Bishop of Rome of the title and paraphernalia 
of the emperor as Pontifex Maximus. The occa- 
sion of the papal establishment in the West was 
the retirement of the emperors to Constantinople, 
which ultimately involved the division of the 
Empire and the practical abdication on the part 
of the emperors of their assumed pontifical au- 
thority over the Roman Church. In the East, 
the powers which inhered in the emperor as Ponti- 
fex Maximus were transmitted to the imperial 
house of Russia, whose Czar, or Ccesar, is still the 
recognized head of the Oriental Church. 

Many of the forms and paraphernalia of the 
Church are inheritances from the cultus and State 
ceremonials of pagan Rome. The cathedral, or 
<shurch of the bishop, derives its name from the 
cathedra, or simple chair, at the head of the trkli- 



218 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

nium, or Roman dining-hall, where the presiding 
elders of the earliest congregations were seated. 
The sella gestatoria, in which the pope is borne 
aloft in religious processions, is the ancient palan- 
quin of Roman nobles and princes. The red 
slippers which he wears are the campagines, or red 
shoes, of the emperor. "The kiss," says Dean 
Stanley, "which the faithful impress upon those 
shoes is the descendant of the kiss first imprinted 
upon the foot of the Emperor Caligula, who 
imported it from Persia. The fans which go 
before him are the punkahs of the Eastern empe- 
rors, borrowed from Persia."* Christianity and 
heathendom are brought into startling and signifi- 
cant proximity in these inherited customs. On one 
side of the mate to the obelisk now standing in our 
Central Park — which eighteen hundred years ago 
was transported from Egypt to the Monte Citorio 
in Rome — is its original dedication by the Pontifex 
Maximus, Augustus Caesar, to the sun ; on the other, 
its re-dedication by the Pontifex Maximus, Pius VI., 
to Christ, — faithful type and symbol of the Church, 
in whose ritual and creed are mingled the inherited 
customs and traditions of the Aryan and the Sem- 
ite, of pagan Rome and the simple ethical monothe- 
ism of Judea. Error and truth are both so firmly 
graven upon the ecclesiastical superstructure that 
they together testify to its natural growth out of 
the mind and heart of man. 

* Christian Institutions. I have found Dean Stanley to 
be the most unbiassed and independent historian of the 
early Church, and am mainly indebted to him for the facts 
herein presented, though care has been taken to substan- 
tiate his statements by comnarison with other writers on 
church history and with primitive documents now extant. 



THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE 219 

Conflict with Orientalism: The Gnostic Sects. 

The first Christian century covers the period in 
Roman history from the time of Augustus to that 
of Trajan, including the reigns of Tiberius, Ca- 
ligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, 
Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, and Nerva. Many 
of these reigns were of short duration, and the 
contact of the early emperors with infant Chris- 
tianity was slight and unimportant. This period, 
however, was a notable one in the history of the 
growing faith. At this time, the conflict began 
between those tendencies and doctrines which 
subsequently became recognized as authentically 
representative of orthodox Christianity and cer- 
tain opposing ideas and tendencies, mainly of 
Oriental origin, which threatened at one time to 
turn the thought and life of Christendom into 
other and entirely different channels. The chief 
of these conflicting tendencies was that known as 
Gnosticism. "Gnosticism," says Prof. Allen, "is 
a genuine and legitimate outgrowth of the same 
general movement of thought which shaped the 
Christian dogma."* The school of Marcion, and, 
less evidently, the other Gnostic sects, bore a 
direct relationship to that form of Hellenized 
Christianity which arose from the thought and 
instruction, of Paul. Gnosticism was an honest 
attempt, by professing Christians, to solve the 
problem of the universe in accordance with an 
intellectual system, the materials of which it drew 

* Christian History. By Joseph Henry Allen. For an 
account of Gnosticism, see also Baur, History of the 
Church in the First Three Christian Centuries; Milman, 
History of Christianity etc. 



220 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

mainly from the dualistic Orientalism of Persia, 
and to a lesser degree, perhaps, from the philoso- 
phies of India and Egypt. It is not our purpose 
to present here any detailed account of the various 
Gnostic sects. A brief description of the general 
principles upon which their philosophy was 
founded is, however, necessary to a correct under- 
standing of the attitude of primitive Christianity 
toward the Eastera philosophical systems and of 
the natural development of Christian dogma. 

The complete dualistic separation of God — the 
Supreme Light and only perfect being — from the 
material universe was assumed as the philosophi- 
cal basis of the Gnostic systems. To span this 
apparently impassable gulf and account for the 
creation of the world and the orderly government 
of the universe, the Gnostics had recourse to the 
Oriental theory of creation by emanation. From 
the Supreme Mind emanated a series of JSons, or 
"Eternals," the highest order of which proceeded 
directly from Deity himself; while the inferior 
orders were related logically and genetically to man 
and the material universe. These ^k>ns were con- 
ceived as male and female, united in marriage, and 
thus transmitting by generation the creative force 
from God to matter and to man. In the system of 
Yalentinus, Depth, or the Abyss, and Silence, or 
Thought, begat Nous, or Mind, and Alethea, or 
Truth. These in turn begat Logos, or Reason, and 
Zoe, or Life; and these gave birth to Man and 
Ecclesia, the Church or Ideal Society. The world 
in its present state, they argued, must have had a 
beginning. Time and circumstance must have had 



THE CHURCH IN THE AP08T0LIC AGE 221 

a beginning also. Before them existed only the 
Infinite, — not indeed an infinite void, but an in- 
finite Pleroma, or fulness, represented by the JEons. 
Man, by reason of his alliance with matter, was 
fallen from the high estate of a spiritual being. 
The Gnostic conception of the fall of man was, 
therefore, not ethical, but philosophical or meta- 
physical. Mind was degraded by contact with 
matter ; and salvation, through the influence of the 
JEon, Christ, was regarded as the means of dissolv- 
ing this temporary copartnership, of liberating 
the pure mind from its material associations. 

Gnosticism, in its leading schools, was the com- 
plete antithesis of Judaism ; and Yahweh, the God 
of the Jews, even became the Gnostic demiourgos, 
the creator and ruler of the evil material uni- 
verse, the antagonist of the Supreme Mind, the 
true and only Deity. The man Jesus was wholly 
absorbed in the ideal Christ: his bodily appear- 
ance was a mere phantom; and the Christ, no 
longer regarded as a person, was represented as a 
universal cosmic principle rather than a principle 
of moral regeneration. Many of the Gnostic 
teachers were undoubtedly the intellectual supe- 
riors of their orthodox opponents, but in the 
character of their strength lay also the source and 
explanation of their weakness. The final down- 
fall of Gnosticism as a part of the Christian 
system was a logical necessity. It broke the 
historical continuity of Christian development in 
separating itself entirely from Judaism, and sev- 
ered also the logical continuity in subordinating 
the ethical element, supreme in the teaching of 



222 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

Jesus, to a mystical and metaphysical philosophy 
which was foreign to his thought. In the second 
century, we find orthodox Christianity crystalliz- 
ing its primitive dogmatic tendencies free from 
the metaphysical philosophy of Gnosticism, and 
"equally removed," says Dean Milman, "from its 
unmingled and unsullied original, the Judseo- 
Christianity of Palestine, of which the Ebionites 
appear to have been the last representatives." * 

Judaeo-Christiaiiity: The .Ebionites. 

We have already had occasion to speak of the 
Ebionites as the recipients of the earliest Judaeo- 
Christian tradition. We would err greatly, how- 
ever, if we were to suppose that they adhered 
strictly to all the forms of ancient Judaism, or 
maintained its doctrine unalloyed and uncon- 
taminated. Pharisaic Judaism and, still more, 
such sects as the Essenes had already assimilated 
much from Oriental sources; and Jewish Chris- 
tianity resembled these later sects much more 
closely than the primitive faith of the Hebrews. 
From Oriental sources had come the later Mes- 
sianic doctrines and the current millenarianism of 
the time, — the rite of baptism, and probably what- 
ever is most noteworthy in the ascetic tendencies 
which some of the Jewish sects exhibited in com- 
mon with many of the followers of Jesus. The 
Persian dualism had entered deeply into the doc- 
trines of the Nazarenes and Ebionitic Christians. 
They regarded the present world as the kingdom 
of Satan, — as wholly corrupt and given over to 
* History of Christianity. 






THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE 223 

the powers of evil. Out of this conception grew 
their characteristic doctrine of the blessedness of 
poverty. Those who enjoyed the wealth and 
luxuries of the present world, it was believed, 
would be deprived thereof in the kingdom of the 
future. 

After the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the 
Christian Church of the apostles removed in a 
body to the Batanea, near the Jordan River, where 
they continued their organization, and numbered 
among themselves the descendants of the family 
of Jesus. It is related that, during the reign of 
Domitian, the emperor, being informed of the 
existence of a family descended from the ancient 
Hebrew kings, — according to the then established 
tradition of the royal lineage of Jesus, — ordered 
them to be brought before him ; but, on beholding 
their hands hardened with toil and their general 
appearance of poverty, he ceased to regard them 
as possible rivals, or insurrectionists against his 
authority, and permitted them to return unmo- 
lested to their homes. 

The Ebionites, like the Essenes, were very ab- 
stemious in their habits, living, according to Epi- 
phanius, entirely on a vegetarian diet. Clement 
of Alexandria confirms this tradition, and de- 
clares that the Apostle Matthew and James, the 
brother of Jesus, ate no meat. The Ebionites 
practised circumcision, and kept the Jewish 
Sabbath, the feasts of the new moon, and the 
passover. They celebrated the eucharist with 
unleavened bread, and with water instead of 
wine. They attached great importance to the 



224 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

doctrine of angels, which the Jews had derived 
from the Persian angelology, and closely connected 
Christ with this order of supernatural beings. 
The community at Batanea continued to use the 
Syro-Chaldaic tongue, in common with the inhabi- 
tants of the region in which they dwelt. They 
made use of a primitive Gospel written in that 
language, which has been identified as the Gospel 
of the Hebrews. It contained no reference to the 
miraculous birth of Jesus, but directly affirmed his 
manhood, commencing with the assertion, as from 
the mouths of the apostles, "There was a man 
named Jesus, about thirty years old, who hath 
chosen us out." * The earliest generations of the 
Nazarenes, or Ebionitic Christians, wholly rejected 
the dogma of Christ's divinity. During the third 
and fourth centuries, however, some of their num- 
ber appear to have assigned to him a unique and 
supernatural character, approaching the conception 
of a divine being. 

The Liegend of Simon Magus. 

Among the earliest and most noteworthy Ebion- 
itic documents are the pseudo-Clementine Homi- 
lies. Herein we have an account of the alleged 
contest between the Apostle Peter and one Simon 
Magus, or Simon the magician, who is represented 
as a sorcerer and teacher of false doctrines, who 
travelled through Europe and Asia Minor, claim- 
ing to be a Christian teacher, assuming to work 
miracles in the name of Christ, and even seeking 

*See the compilation of extant fragments of this Gospel 
by Dr. Nicholson. 



THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE 225 

confirmation as an apostle at the hands of Peter 
and John. The Acts of the Apostles also men- 
tions Simon Magus; and there is no doubt that 
this legend obtained general recognition among 
the Christians of the early part of the second 
century, though no mention of Simon is made in 
the secular history of the period, and his identity 
as an historical personage is more than problem- 
atical. 

From the general character of the descriptions 
found in the Homilies and elsewhere, the rational 
investigator can hardly fail to be convinced with 
Baur* and other liberal scholars that Simon 
Magus is no other than an Ebionitic caricature of 
the Apostle Paul. Peter is made to pass over 
almost the exact route of Paul in his authentic 
journeyings in following Simon around to extir- 
pate the seeds of heresy and dissension which he 
had sown among the churches. There is no his- 
torical evidence, however, that Peter ever went 
into Europe at all; and the entire story of the 
Homilies must be regarded in the light of a semi- 
historical romance. Beausobre terms Simon Magus 
"the hero of the romance of heresy"; and Dean 
Milman says of the Homilies, "That in their 
present form they are a kind of religious romance 
few will doubt." f 

According to the story, Simon was accompanied 
in his wanderings by a beautiful but frail woman 
named Helena, who is doubtless nothing else than 

* History of the Church in the First Three Christian 
Centuries. By Ferdinand Christian Baur. 
t History of Christianity, vol. ii. 



226 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

the personification of the Hellenic philosophy and 
influence so noticeable in the writings of Paul, 
and so demoralizing to the primitive doctrine of 
Jesus, according to the views of the Ebionites. 
In the following address to Simon, recorded in the 
Homilies, the allusion to Paul is plain and unmis- 
takable: "Even though our Jesus appeared to 
thee in a vision, made himself known to thee, 
and talked with thee, he was wroth with thee aa 
an adversary, and therefore spoke to thee through 
visions and dreams, or it may be through outward 
revelations; but can any man be commissioned 
to the office of teacher by a vision ? And, if thou 
sayest it is possible, why did the teacher go about 
constantly for a whole year with men who were not 
dreaming, but awake? And how can we believe 
that he revealed himself to thee? How can he 
have appeared to thee, who hast opinions contrary 
to his doctrines ? If thou really didst become an 
apostle by his appearing to thee and instructing 
thee for one hour, then expound his sayings, 
preach his doctrines, love his apostles, and dispute 
not with me who was with him! For thou hast 
striven against me as an adversary, against me, the 
strong rock, the foundation of the church 1" How 
significant is this language in connection with the 
notable fact that Paul quotes but once the 
words of Jesus, and in connection also with his 
boast that he withstood Peter at Antioch "to his 
very face" 1 

Simon Magus is everywhere represented as a man 
of ecstatic, visionary experiences, — an admitted 
characteristic of Paul. He is said to have been 



THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE 227 

born in Samaria; and Epiphanius testifies to the 
existence of a similar traditional belief among the 
Ebionites in regard to Paul. The doctrines of 
Simon, as represented in the Homilies, are ex- 
aggerations, and often misrepresentations, of the 
Oriental and philosophical teachings of Paul. 
Simon is said to have called himself the first 
aeon or emanation from the Deity, — a Gnostic 
conception, which is applied, not to Paul, but to 
Christ, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, — at the 
time when the Homilies were written, probably 
attributed to Paul. Simon is also represented as 
a believer in angels and demoniacal influences, 
and as making it his avowed object to emancipate 
mankind from these evil powers. Paul's dualism 
is exaggerated; and the Oriental doctrine of the 
evil nature of the material universe, found in the 
Pauline Epistles, is greatly intensified. 

The conception of Simon Magus as an historical 
character once having gained a foothold among the 
traditions of the early Christians, many curious 
legends grew up concerning him; and his true 
character as identified with Paul was ultimately 
forgotten. To this day, he is usually deemed by 
orthodox theologians to be an historical person- 
age; and some regard him as one of the founders 
of Gnosticism. There can be little doubt, how- 
ever, that the theory of Baur presents the true 
explanation of the romance of the Homilies. 
Against the original "Simon Pure," in the person 
of Simon Peter, the writer set up this opposing 
picture of the false Simon, or Simon the magician, 
who, in his character of an attempted purchaser 



228 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

of apostolic honors, becomes the originator of the 
ecclesiastical crime of simony. This is doubtless 
a slanderous accusation against Paul ; and its only 
apparent historical foundation appears to be dis- 
covered in a circumstance every way honorable to 
him, — the fact that he raised and contributed 
money to the struggling church of Peter and the 
so-called "pillar" apostles at Jerusalem.* 

Nero and the Earliest Christian Persecutions. 

The Apocalypse, or Book of Revelation, written 
probably about 68 A.D., shortly before the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem and soon after the death of 
the Emperor Nero, is also a document of strong 
Judaeo-Christian tendencies. Some of its obscure 
references to the circumstances of the period have 
doubtless been correctly interpreted by Renan and 
other critics of the liberal school. At the time of 
Nero occurred the most notable of the early per- 
secutions of the Christians; though violent oppo- 
sition to the new doctrine, regarded as a phase of 
Judaism, had already commenced during the reign 
of his predecessor, Claudius. At this time, dissen- 
sions had arisen in the Jewish colony at Rome ; 
and, regarding the Christians as merely an insig- 
nificant sect of the Jews, Claudius had punished 
them all together with indiscriminate severity. 
The Jews were generally looked upon as atheists 
and contemners of the popular religion; and the 
Christians thus experienced the truth of the 
homely proverb, "Give a dog a bad name, and 
then hang him." 

♦Romans xv., 25-28. 



THE CHURCH IN THE AI OSTOLIC AGE 229 

The character of Nero, as preserved to us in 
history, is a most remarkable and detestable one. 
He was the traditional aesthete of his period. A 
scholar, proficient in both the Greek and Latin 
languages, a writer of poetry, and critic of no 
mean pretensions, he accepted the debased philos- 
ophy of the Epicureans, and gave to their concep- 
tion of happiness as the ideal end of existence a 
purely selfish and sensuous interpretation. "In 
the strictly modern sense of culture," says Renan, 
"as distinguished from original philosophical spec- 
ulation or scientific research, he was the most 
widely and exquisitely cultivated man that ever 
enjoyed an autocrat's opportunities for self-grati- 
fication."* In his later life, he was given over 
to the most unexampled exhibitions of luxury, 
mingled with cruelty and the grossest sensuality. 
While he lived, he was greatly admired, even by 
many among the cultivated classes. In accord- 
ance with the custom of the period, he received 
divine honors as an incarnate deity. "He was 
called Zeus, the liberator," says Tiele, "and even 
the saviour o€ the world." f Expiring, it is said, 
with a sentence of Homer on his lips, he left a 
name execrated by all succeeding generations. 

The great fire at Rome in the year 64 A.D., 
which some of his contemporaries attributed to 
the act or command of Nero himself, was by him 
charged upon the Christians. Their identification 
with the hated Jews, the false interpretation of 

* The Antichrist. By Ernest Renan. 
t History of Religion. By Prof. Tiele, of the University 
of Ley den. 



230 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

their publicly proclaimed doctrine of the speedy 
destruction of the world by fire, their isolation 
and avoidance of the public games and the popu- 
lar worship of the gods, prepared the populace to 
believe the slander, and to rejoice in the acts of 
persecution which followed its promulgation. The 
refinements of cruelty resorted to by Nero at this 
time were previously unknown in communities 
claiming to be civilized, and are only equalled in 
history by the subsequent annals of the Christian 
inquisition. Some of the victims were crucified; 
others, clad in the skins of wild beasts, were torn 
in pieces by ferocious dogs in the presence of the 
populace; others, enveloped in sheets dipped in 
tar, oil, or resin, and bound to upright poles, 
served as torches to illuminate the scenes of these 
horrid festivities. These executions often took 
place in the imperial gardens; and Nero, in the 
garb and attitude of a gladiator, rode to and fro 
in the midst of the carnival of horrors, courting 
and receiving the popular applause. Mythological 
dramas, involving the death or torture of some 
hero, were represented not only "to the life," but 
even to the death of their actor- victims. "At the 
close of the performance," says Renan, "Mercury, 
with a red-hot iron rod, touched evsry corpse to 
see if it would stir ; and masked lackeys, simulat- 
ing Pluto or Orcus, dragged the dead out by their 
feet, smashing with mallets everything that be- 
trayed signs of life." Not only Christians, but 
many other convicts and prisoners, were among 
the victims of this infamous emperor. 



THE CHURCH IN TnE APOSTOLIC AGE 231 

The Doctrine of the Antichrist. 

Nero died by suicide at the private villa of 
Phaon, one of his courtiers. His corpse was not 
exposed to public recognition. It was even be- 
lieved by some that the body of another was sub- 
stituted for that of the emperor at the burial. 
The idea soon became prevalent that he still lived, 
had fled to Persia or the East, and would presently 
return at the head of a Parthian army, and resume 
his imperial sway. Such a conception easily took 
possession of the terrified objects of his persecu- 
tion. To the Christians, he naturally and inevi- 
tably became the ideal opponent of Jesus, — the 
antichrist, — the incarnation of all that was sen- 
suous and evil as opposed to the incarnation of all 
that was spiritual and good. The idea of the anti- 
christ was a creation of Judaism during the period 
of the growth of the Messianic doctrine. Some 
writers even trace it back to the prophet Ezekiel. 
The incarnate representative of evil was identi- 
fied with the person of Antiochus Epiphanes dur- 
ing the Maccabsean period, and is the "man of 
sin" of the Pauline Epistles. 

The name "antichrist" is found in the New 
Testament only in the Epistles of John. The 
Apocalypse, however, is the book which especially 
presents Nero in this character. "If the Gospel is 
the book of Jesus," says Renan, "the Revelation 
is the book of Nero." In the description of the 
Apocalyptic visions, the name "Babylon" is evi- 
dently substituted for Rome ; the beast with seven 
heads that rose out of the sea is the Roman Em- 
pire from Augustus to Otho; the fifth head is 



232 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

Nero, the fifth Emperor, "wounded unto death." 
He was the one "who was, and is not, and is to 
be." He was the El Mahdi of that period, — the 
leader of the hosts of sin, whose return and tem- 
porary triumph would be the precursor of the ad- 
vent of the heavenly kingdom. In the simple and 
superstitious expectation of the early Christians, 
he would soon reappear to inaugurate that interval 
of woe, calamity, and misfortune which, in the 
prophetic language of the gospel tradition, was to 
be the herald of the return of Jesus to reign over 
the saints upon the regenerated earth. "Thanks 
to the Apocalypse," says Renan, "Nero has for 
Christianity the importance of a second founder. 
His odious visage has become inseparable from 
the face of Jesus. Huger grown from age to age, 
the monster, sprung from the nightmare of the 
year 64, has become a fearful incubus on the Chris- 
tian conscience, the sombre giant of the evening 
of the world. To this day, in Armenia the name 
of the Antichrist is Neron. In the seventeenth 
century, a folio of five hundred and fifty pages 
was composed upon his birth and education, his 
vices and his wishes, his perfumes and his women, 
his teachings, his miracles and his junketings." 
There is no doubt, however, that Nero was much 
more to Christianity than the new faith was to 
him. By him, it was little noticed, save at the 
moment when it served as the convenient means 
of turning from himself the odium of the popu- 
lace, aroused by the incendiary conflagration at 
Rome. The Apostolic Perioa, on the whole, was 
favorable to the growth of Christianity, which 



THE CHURCH IN THE APO»TOLIC AGE 233 

found in its own insignificance and obscurity the 
essential conditions of its early development. 

Other Characteristics of Christian Thought in 
this Age. 

In such an atmosphere of strange and fantastic 
ideas, we discover the Christians of the Apostolic 
Age. Surely, if there is much in their ways of 
thought and life, in their doctrine of human broth- 
erhood and their generally pure morality, to give 
encouragement for the future, there was also much, 
upon a superficial view, to justify the denuncia- 
tion of the new sect by Tacitus as "an execrable 
superstition." Clement of Rome, the venerated 
Father of the Church, writing at the close of the 
first century, relates the mythical story of the 
phoenix as a well-known fact of natural history, 
and uses it as an argument for the resurrection. 
Tertullian, a century later, was equally credulous. 
The writer of the Epistle of Barnabas asserts that 
the hyena is male and female on alternate years. 
Belief in demons and demoniacal possession was a 
universal Christian delusion. The sun, moon, and 
stars were deemed to be living creatures. The 
lofty ethics and noble example of Jesus were al- 
ready becoming obscured by puerile dogma, super- 
stition, and ritualism. The triumph of Christi- 
anity, with these ideas predominant, seemed likely 
to extinguish the better elements in the primitive 
gospel tradition. The supernatural Christ — the 
incarnate Deity — was beginning to usurp the 
position of the Man of Nazareth in the minds of 
his followers. The subsequent history of the evo- 



231 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

lution of the Roman hierarchy and of its secular 
triumph did much to justify the original gospel 
teaching of the blessedness of poverty and the 
unrighteousness of the mammon of this world. 
Yet, beneath all this incubus of puerile supernatu- 
ralism, the toiling poor in the Christian commu- 
nities, little caring for disputes about dogma or 
subtle questions concerning the relation of the 
Son to the Father, held fast to the conception of 
Christ as the Good Shepherd, and clung to the 
hope, born of the gospel promises, that the day of 
their trial and suffering would soon pass away, and 
that the time would speedily come when all men 
should dwell as equals in the kingdom of the 
heavenly Father. 



V 



IX. 
THE MARTYR PERIOD. 

The period in Roman history extending from 
the year 96 A.D. to the year 180 A.D. includes 
the reigns of the "five good emperors," — Nerva, 
Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus 
Aurelius Antoninus. These emperors exercised, in 
the main, a mild and beneficent sway over their 
subjects. Their government was paternal and 
humane, inspired as it was by the lofty ethical pre- 
cepts of the Stoic philosophy. The empire was at 
the height of its power and magnificence. If we 
may not accept in full the eulogy of Gibbon, we 
must at least admit that at no previous era in the 
history of the race had the condition of the masses 
of the people been so favorable to their prosperity 
and happiness. 

In Christian history, this was the period during 
which probably all of our canonical Gospels were 
written. The Christian dogmas were beginning 
to assume their final and authoritative form. The 
Catholic, or orthodox, Church was separating itself 
from Gnosticism, on the one hand, and from Ebi- 
onism on the other. Controversies about doctrine 
led to the appearance of the early patristic liter- 
ature. Ecclesiasticism was growing ; and in oppo- 



236 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

sition to the doctrinal tendencies of the time ap- 
peared Montanism, that fanatical protest against 
early ecclesiasticism, which aimed to restore the 
primitive democratic equality of the earliest Chris- 
tian communities, and advocated a return to the 
simple faith of the fathers. Strangely, as it would 
seem, this period was also coincident with the 
earlier Christian persecutions : it was the heroic 
era in the history of the Church. 

The Earliest Martyrs.— Growing Influence of the 
Church at Rome. 

The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, in the 
year 70 A.D., was an event of great significance 
to primitive Christianity. Thereafter, the Church 
of the apostles, dissevered from Judaism and the 
Temple worship, assumed a position of much less 
relative importance than it had heretofore main- 
tained among the followers of the new faith. As 
the Church at Jerusalem receded from its foremost 
position, the Church at Rome came to the front, 
increasing steadily in power and influence. The 
Epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, 
written probably in the last years of the first Chris- 
tian century, already exhibits something of that 
spirit of paternal supervision and authority which 
was finally assumed by the bishop of Rome as the 
supreme pontiff. 

Paul, not improbably, and Peter, according to a 
current though questionable tradition, had already 
suffered martyrdom at Rome during the reign of 
Nero. Their names were thus united in the popu- 
lar mind, to strengthen the growing tendency to 



THE MARTYR PERIOD 237 

throw a halo of saperiority and supremacy around 
the Roman Church. The blood of these earliest 
martyrs became in very truth the seed of the 
Roman hierarchy. Shocking as was the barbarity 
of Nero's persecution, however, it can hardly be 
said to have been consciously aimed at the Chris- 
tian religion. So insignificant were the Christians 
as a sect, that the emperor could not have foreseen 
any danger to the empire -from the extension of 
their faith. Their very insignificance, indeed, and 
their identification in the popular mind with the 
despised Jews, appear to have been the occasions 
of their martyrdom. To the later reign of Domi- 
tian has been assigned the martyrdom of Flavius 
Clemens, — a Roman of wealth and rank, who had 
embraced the new religion, — on the charge of 
atheism, though the history of this occurrence is 
involved in obscurity ; and his execution may have 
been due to political or social rather than to relig- 
ious causes, his religion serving merely as a pre- 
text to cover the real designs of the emperor. The 
martyrdom of John, the evangelist, has been as- 
signed by some to the reign of Domitian. The ac- 
counts of this event, however, are wholly legendary 
and unreliable. 

The Reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus 
Pius. 

As the new religion became more prominent, its 
universalizing tendencies were emphasized in oppo- 
sition to the prevailing ethnical systems ; and its 
uncompromising hostility to the popular cultus 
caused it to be regarded with growing disfavor by 
the government. The reigns of Trajan and Ha- 



238 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

drian, however, were generally favorable to its ea 
pansion ; and these wise and humane emperors can- 
not be charged with any deliberate persecution of 
its followers. The few instances of prosecution 
for religious causes during these reigns, based upon 
charges of denying the gods, failure to offer sac- 
rifices, and holding secret meetings, or "illicit as- 
semblies," were conducted under laws of the em- 
pire already existing, and originally promulgated 
without reference to Christianity or any particular 
form of religious faith. These prosecutions were 
instigated by popular clamor, and were local and 
unimportant in their character. 

Pliny, the governor of Bithynia, who regarded 
the new religion as "a culpable and extravagant 
superstition," was forced by accusations brought 
under the laws of the empire to arrest, condemn, 
and execute certain Christians who refused to re- 
nounce their faith. He was not incited to this 
course by any special edict or command of the 
emperor, nor did he in any way exceed the man- 
dates of existing laws. The celebrated rescript 
of Trajan, issued on receipt of despatches from 
Pliny concerning the prosecution of the Christians, 
appears to have been intended to favor and protect 
the accused rather than to urge on their persecu- 
tors. It required that punishment should only be 
inflicted according to the due forms of law, and 
ordained that opportunity should be offered for 
recantation and conformity to the law, which, if 
accepted, would be a sufficient defence against the 
prosecution. Dean Mil man, an able and candid 
Christian historian, testifies to the forbearance of 



THE MARTYR PERIOD 239 

Trajan and Hadrian as well as Pliny in their deal- 
ings with the Christians, declaring that "Trajan 
is absolved, at least by the almost general voice of 
antiquity, from the crime of persecuting the Chris- 
tians," and asserting further that, "under a less 
candid governor than Pliny and an emperor less 
humane and dispassionate than Trajan, the exter- 
minating sword of persecution would have been 
let loose, and a relentless and systematic edict for 
the suppression of Christianity would have hunted 
down its followers in every quarter of the empire."* 

It is evident that the attacks on Christianity at 
this time originated with the ignorant and super- 
stitious populace of certain localities, remote, 
usually, from the capital ; and that, in so far as 
they received the sanction of the imperial govern- 
ment, they were instigated by no general desire to 
persecute or destroy. The Christians were still 
often confounded with the Jews, who, both in Pal- 
estine and in Mesopotamia, were manifesting signs 
of discontent and rebellion. A few years later, 
this rebellious spirit culminated in the insurrection 
of Bar-Cochba, in which many thousands of lives 
were sacrificed. This tended to inflame and aug- 
ment the popular prejudice against both the Chris- 
tians and the Jews. 

The unyielding and fanatical temper of the 
Christians themselves undoubtedly helped to stim- 
ulate this spirit of persecution. Martyrdom was 
often counted as the greatest of blessings, and was 
regarded as a certain assurance of admission to 

*Milman also says of an order of Hadrian reaffirming 
that of Trajan, The edict does credit to the humanity 
and wisdom of Hadrian.— History of Christianity, vol. if. 



240 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

the glories of the heavenly kingdom. In the cor- 
respondence of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, says 
Dean Milman, "there is throughout a wild eager- 
ness for martyrdom. ... He even deprecates the 
interference of his Christian friends in his behalf. 
He fears lest their ill-timed and, as he thinks, 
cruelly officious love might by some influence . . . 
deprive him of that glorious crown." The follow- 
ing passages from the Epistle of Ignatius to the 
Romans are illustrative of a spirit which prevailed 
very generally among the Christians of his time : — 

I write to the churches, and I declare to all that 
willingly I die for God, if it be that you hinder me 
not. I beg of you do not become to me an unreason- 
able love. Let me be for the beasts, by whose means 
I am enabled to obtain God. I am God's wheat, and 
by the teeth of the beasts I am ground, that I may be 
found God's pure bread. Rather entreat kindly the 
beasts that they may be a grave for me, and leave 
nothing of my body. . . . Supplicate our Lord for me, 
that by these instruments I may be found a sacrifice 
to God. . . . May I have to rejoice of the beasts pre- 
pared for me » And I pray that they may be found 
ready for me; and I will kindly entreat them quickly 
to devour me, and not, as they have done to some, 
being afraid of them, to keep from touching me. 
And, should they not be willing, I will force them. . . . 
Those who say "Martyr" to me scourge me. It is 
true that I desire to suffer, but I do not know if I am 
worthy. 

The Gnostic heretics of this period were de- 
nounced by their orthodox opponents, not only for 
their errors of opinion upon dogmatic questions, but 
also for holding that martyrdom was unnecessary 



THE MARTYR PERIOD 241 

and non-essential to salvation. The reigns of Trajan, 
Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius, on the whole, were 
favorable to the growth of the new religion. The 
latter emperor both professed and practised in 
accordance with the humane maxim of Scipio, 
which asserted that he would rather save the life 
of a single citizen than cause the death of a thou- 
sand enemies. There is no reliable evidence of 
the persecution of the Christians during his reign ; 
nor are there any notable instances of martyrdom, 
with the possible exception of Polycarp, the vener- 
able bishop of Smyrna, whose execution, however, 
is usually referred to the reign of his successor. 
The general voice, even of Christian antiquity, is 
favorable to the justice and tolerance of Antoni- 
nus Pius.* 

Marcus Aurelius and the Persecution of the 
Christians. 

The attitude of the great emperor, Marcus 
Aurelius, toward the Christian Church, has been 
severely and, as we think, unjustly attacked by 
Christian apologists and historians of recent times. 
A man of the purest personal character and lofti- 
est religious sentiments, — accepting the exalted 
ethical principles of the Stoic philosophy, — it is 
difficult to conceive that he could deliberately per- 
secute the adherents of any form of religion on 
account of their belief. "Marcus Aurelius," says 
Dr. Hedge, "standing midway between the first 

* A writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica says of this 
emperor, "Instead of stirring up the persecutions of the 
Christians, and gloating over the sufferings of their mar- 
tyrs, he extended to them the strong hand of his protec- 
tion through all the empire."— Art. "Antoninus Pius." 



242 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

appearance of Christianity and its civil enfran- 
chisement, represents the high-water mark of 
Roman greatness, as he does the height of Impe- 
rial virtue in the annals of mankind. . . . Neither 
in St. Louis nor in English Alfred, to whom 
Merivale compares him, do I find the same piety, 
the moral sublimity, which I admire in the Roman 
sovereign." * 

The character of Marcus Aurelius was moulded 
by a nature at once profoundly religious and 
intensely practical. Though a careful student of 
philosophy, holding his teachers in reverent 
regard, he never lost himself in the mazes of meta- 
physical speculation, or permitted his mind to 
fall into the profound pessimism of the Oriental 
mystics, with its resulting absorption from the 
affairs of practical life and despair of the future 
of humanity. His teaching was as universal and 
as practical as that of Paul. He professed, in- 
deed, no belief in dogmas of a merely speculative 
character. His theology was, as nearly as possi- 
ble, a sort of cosmic theism. "He saw clearly," 
says Renan, "that, where the Infinite is concerned, 
no formula is absolute. ... He distinctly separated 
moral beauty from all theoretical theology. He 
allows duty to depend upon no metaphysical opin- 
ion of the First Cause." f Herein, Marcus Aure- 
lius anticipated the rationalistic philosophies of 
Spinoza and Herbert Spencer. Very deeply relig- 
ious, nevertheless, was his attitude toward that 
Unknowable Reality of which all phenomena are 

* "Christianity in Conflict with Hellenism," by Fred- 
eric Henry Hedge, D.D., in Unitarian Review. 
t Marcus Aurelius. By Ernest Renan. 



THE MARTYR PERIOD 243 

dependent manifestations. "All that thou arrang- 
est is suited to me, O Kosmos !" he says. "Noth- 
ing of that which comes from thee is premature 
or backward to me. I find my fruit in that which 
thy seasons bear, O Nature ! From thee comes 
all. In thee is all : to thee all returns." * It may 
be said of Marcus Aurelius, as Carlyle once 
affirmed of Margaret Fuller : — He accepted the 
universe. He designated himself as "a man 
ready to quit life without regret"; yet he found 
in life more of good than of evil, and accepted 
whatever of care and trouble fell to his lot with 
manly resignation. "The character of Marcus," 
again says Dr. Hedge, "is revealed in his self- 
communings, which have come down to us, an 
imperishable volume, — the so-called Meditations of 
the Emperor Antoninus. Better preaching I have 
not found, nor thoughts more edifying, in any 
Christian writer of that time. A sombre spirit, 
but how sweet, how grand !" 

There was about Marcus Aurelius nothing of 
the autocrat or tyrant. Though clothed with 
unlimited power, he used it all to promote and 
increase the liberties of his people. He recognized 
all men as possessing a common humanity with 
himself. f One day, he thus reproached himself: 
"Thou hast forgotten what holy relationship 
unites each man to the human race, — a relation- 
ship not of blood or of birth, but the participation 

* Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. See also 
Selections, "Wisdom Series." (Roberts Brothers.) 

t "I have formed an ideal of the State," he says, "in 
which there is the same law for all, and equal rights and 
equal liberty of speech for all,— an empire where nothing is 
honored so much as the freedom of the citizens." 



244 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

of the same intelligence. Thou hast forgotten 
that the rational faculty of each one is a god, 
derived from the Supreme Being." 

Matthew Arnold says that Marcus Aurelius "is, 
perhaps, the most beautiful figure in history," 
and adds : "The great record for the outward life 
of a man who has left such a record of his inward 
aspirations ... is the clear consenting voice of 
all his contemporaries — high and low, friend and 
enemy, Pagan and Christian — in praise of his 
sincerity, justice, and goodness." Niebuhr de- 
clares him to be "certainly the noblest character 
of his time" ; and Ren an closes his lecture before 
the Royal Academy with the following memorable 
words: "The religion of Marcus Aurelius is the 
absolute religion, — that which results from the 
simple fact of a high moral conscience placed 
face to face with the universe. It is of no race, 
neither of any country. No revolution, no 
change, no discovery, will have power to affect it." 

It is, nevertheless, unhappily the fact that Chris- 
tians were condemned under the laws of the 
empire, and upon some the penalty of death was 
inflicted, during the reign of this exemplary ruler. 
Even so candid and careful an historian as Dean 
Milman attributes to Marcus Aurelius the promul- 
gation of an edict which repealed the acts of 
toleration granted by his predecessors, and opened 
anew the flood-gates of oppression and persecu- 
tion. From the testimony of Watson, Renan, 
and other unbiassed historians, it appears, how- 
ever, that this edict was issued for the protection 
rather than the persecution of the Christians, aim- 



THE MARTYR PERIOD 245 

ing to renew the wise provisions of Trajan's 
rescript, which compelled a strict adherence to 
legal forms in the prosecution of alleged violators 
of the laws of the empire. 

To this period is usually assigned the martyr- 
dom of the venerable Polycarp, the bishop of 
Smyrna, whose calm dignity and patient endur- 
ance furnish so fine a picture in the annals of the 
martyrs. The Martyrium of Polycarp, however, 
can hardly be deemed with certainty a reliable 
historical record; though conservative historians 
have generally accepted it as a genuine document 
of the Smyrnian Church. Nor does it appear to 
be certain that the time of Polycarp's death is 
definitely assignable to the reign of Marcus 
Aurelius. Certain chronological notes appended 
to the Martyrium by a later writer than its un- 
known author would fix the date in the year 
155 A.D., or some six years previous to the acces- 
sion of the great Stoic emperor. At all events, 
there is no evidence that the emperor was directly 
or indirectly influential in promoting this act of 
persecution, or that he even knew of the event 
before its occurrence. "Polycarp," says Dean 
Milman, "closed the nameless train of Asiatic 
martyrs." 

At Lyons and Vienne, however, on the borders 
of Gaul and Italy, a colony of Christian emigrants 
from Phrygia, in Asia Minor, in doctrine and 
customs akin to the Montanists, suffered, about 
the year 177, from an ebullition of popular fury, 
to which some of them fell victims. They were 
first assaulted with mob violence, beaten, stoned, 



24:6 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

dragged helpless about the streets, and finally 
compelled through fear to remain in confinement 
within their own houses. The order for their 
arrest, issued by the authorities, was in reality an 
act of mercy, inasmuch as it protected them for 
the time from the violence of the mob. Their 
leaders were accused before the magistrates of 
the most odious crimes, — of incest, concubinage, 
banquets upon human flesh, and the grossest 
offences against decency and morality. They 
were convicted on the testimony of their heathen 
slaves, and hurried to execution. It is a fact of 
strange significance that the institution of slavery, 
tolerated, if not justified, by the Christian Fathers, 
thus early in the history of the Church appeared 
as an avenging Nemesis in retribution for the 
fatal inconsistency which ignored the fundamental 
ethical and social doctrines of the new religion, 
or feared to carry them to their logical conclusions 
in practice. 

Even the more moderate of the non-Christian 
populace appear, at the time, to have believed 
these charges against the Christians, and to have 
consented to the execution of the condemned. In 
accordance with the practice of the time, many 
were subjected to horrible tortures. Some per- 
ished in loathsome dungeons, others by the 
customary modes of execution. Among the vic- 
tims were Sanctus, a deacon of Vienne ; a recent 
convert named Maturus ; one Attalus, a Phrygian ; 
and Pothinus, the aged bishop of Lyons. The 
most remarkable of the martyrs, however, was Blan- 
dina, a female slave, who, after suffering the most 



THE MARTYR PERIOD 247 

horrible tortures unflinchingly, was thrice exposed 
to wild beasts in the public arena. At last, having 
been tossed by an infuriated bull, and terribly muti- 
lated, she was despatched by the sword of an 
attendant gladiator. She bore all her sufferings 
with the most heroic endurance, steadfastly pro- 
claiming, "I am a Christian, and no wickedness 
is practised among us." 

It is the testimony of Watson * and other un- 
biassed and competent historians that the em- 
peror was not aware of the proceedings at Lyons 
and Vienne until a considerable time after the 
commencement of the persecutions; and the only 
influence which he appears to have exerted subse- 
quently was directed toward the protection of 
the accused from mob violence, by enforcing the 
provisions of the rescript of Trajan. The only 
instance of alleged persecution of the Christians 
at Rome is the condemnation and execution of 
Justin, the noted Christian apologist, with several 
of his companions. Justin had obtained unusual 
notoriety by his contests with Marcion and the 
Jew, Trypho, and had especially incurred the 
hostility of one Crescentius, a Cynic philosopher, 
with whom he had been involved in debate and 
controversy. By the machinations of Crescentius, 
he was accused before the tribunal of Rusticus, 
an imperial justice, tried, condemned, and exe- 
cuted. The emperor took no part in his prosecu- 
tion, nor was there at any time any general 
persecution of the Chuich at Rome during this 
reign. On the contrary, the Christians were 

* Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. By Paul Barron Watson. 



248 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

everywhere making their way to positions of trust 
and profit. They were enrolled among the impe- 
rial legions, and it is even asserted that they had 
obtained a foothold in the imperial household * 

On the whole, the reign of Marcus Aurelius was, 
to a marked degree, favorable to the progress of 
civilization, and not inimical to the advancement 
of the nobler phases of the Christian faith. The 
emperor instituted numerous reforms in the gov- 
ernment and regulation of the empire. He 
elevated the position of woman, and mitigated the 
severity of the institution of slavery, instituting 
regulations favorable to the manumission and 
protection of the servile classes. The public chari- 
ties founded by Nerva and Trajan were protected 
and extended under his influence. Free schools 
were established for the children of the poor. The 
gratuitous distribution of food to the needy was 
continued, under an improved system. An insti- 
tution was opened for the care and assistance of 
poor young girls. Renan, speaking of Marcus 
Aurelius, declares, "His fortune was immense, but 
all employed for good." 

The testimony of the most trustworthy among 
the early Christian writers should be conclusive 
as against the orthodox defamers of Marcus 
Aurelius. Tertullian, himself a Montanist, as, 
probably, were Blandina and the martyrs of Lyons 
and Vienne, testifies as follows: "You will see 
that the princes who have been severe toward us 

•Matthew Arnold asserts that "Marcus Aurelius incurs 
no moral reproach by having authorized the punishment 
of the Christians ; he does not thereby become in the least 
what we mean by a persecutor."— Essay on Marcus 
Aurelius. 



TIIE MARTYR TERIOD 249 

are those who have held to the honor of being our 
persecutors. On the contrary, all the princes who 
have respected divine and human laws include but 
one who persecuted the Christians. We can even 
name one of them who declared himself their 
protector, — the wise Marcus Aurelius. If he did 
not openly revoke the edicts against our brethren, 
he destroyed their power by the severe penalties 
against their accusers." We have also the unqual- 
ified statement of Origen, writing about the middle 
of the third century, that "the number of Christian 
martyrs was small and easy to be counted, God not 
permitting that all of this class of men should be 
exterminated." Watson, the most recent biographer 
of Marcus Aurelius, fixes the number of Christians 
who suffered death during his reign at about a 
hundred,* which is doubtless a liberal estimate. 

Stoicism a Preparation for Christianity. 

Reviewing the period of the Stoic emperors 
from the stand-point of comparative religion, we 
cannot doubt that the public recognition and 
general diffusion of the principles of Stoicism were 
strongly influential in preparing the way for the 
progress of Christianity. Reichel asserts of the 
post-Aristotelian period, in the development of 
philosophy, that it supplied the scientific mould 
into which Christianity, in the early years of its 
growth, was cast, and bearing the shape of which 
it has come down to us. J While, on its dogmatic 
side, the influence of Platonism, and especially of 
the Neo-Platonic school of Alexandria, is predomi- 

* Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. By Paul Barron Watson. 
t Oswald J. Reicnel, B.C.L. and M.A., vicar of Sparsholt, 
Berks. 



250 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

riant, on its social and ethical side, Stoicism was 
scarcely less influential. Both Stoicism and Neo- 
Platonism were products of the intermingling of 
Greek with Semitic thought, the latter even 
predominating in the direction and development 
of Stoicism. Zeller affirms that "the Stoic phi- 
losophy contains no feature of importance which 
we can pronounce with certainty to be taken from 
the popular faith. Even the true worship of God, 
according to their view, consists only in the mental 
effort to know God, and in a moral and pious 
life."* And again: "Even at Athens there were 
teachers, not a few, whose foreign extraction 
indicates the age of Hellenism. Next to the later 
Neo-Platonic school, this remark is of none more 
true than of the Stoic. With this fact we 
may always connect the world-citizenship of this 
school." f A recent writer in the Nineteenth 
Century has well stated the relation of Stoicism 
to Christianity, and of both to the pre-existing 
faiths. "The new tone of Greek ethical thought 
displayed in the rise of Stoicism," he says, "must 
have been due, according to our national-psycho- 
logical stand-point, to some cross-fertilization by 
the ideas of a different race; and Sir Alexander 
Grant % has shown that all the eminent Stoics 
were of Semitic origin. The similarity which has 
struck most observers between Stoicism and Chris- 
tianity receives its explanation from our present 
stand-point, when we remember that both were 
cross-fertilizations of Hellenism by Semitism. The 

* The Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, p. 343. By Dr. E. 
Zeller, professor at Heidelberg. 1 1bid., p. 35. 

% Aristotle's Ethics (third edition), i., p. 307. 



THE MARTYR PERIOD 251 

difference, too, may be due to the fact that, in one 
case, the less intense Semites were the missionaries, 
while Christianity was propagated by the fiery 
zeal of the Jews. The spread of Stoicism among 
the Romans cannot but have had some influence 
in preparing the way for Christianity."* 

The Persecutions of Diocletian and Decius. 

The emperors, from the reign of Marcus Aurelius 
to that of Decius (249-251 A.D.), if not friendly to 
Christianity, were at least indifferent to it. Elaga- 
balus (218 A.D.), who assumed the manners and 
state of an Oriental despot, conceived the idea of 
a universal eclectic cultus, which should fuse the 
Jewish and Samaritan with the Pagan and Chris- 
tian religions, with the sun as the supreme object 
of adoration, and the emperor as his earthly incar- 
nation and representative, — a conception similar to 
that of Kuhn-Aten, the fourth Amen-hotep of 
Egypt. Alexander Severus (222-249 A.D.) carried 
his eclecticism so far that he enlarged the temples 
of Isis and Osiris, and enshrined in the palace as 
his household deities Orpheus, Abraham, Jesus, 
and Apollonius of Tyana. He awarded a piece of 
ground, the ownership of which was in dispute, to 
the Christians, for the alleged reason that it was 
better for it to be devoted to the worship of God 
in any form than to any profane or secular occu- 
pation.! 

*"The God of Israel," by Joseph Jacobs, Nineteenth 
Century, September, 1879. 

tThe story of the alleged martyrdom of Vivia Perpetua 
and Felicitasin Northern Africa, during the reign of Sep- 
timius Severus, though usually accepted as historical, 
bears suggestions of its apocryphal character. The exact 
place of their martyrdom is uncertain ; the testimony 



252 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

During the reigns of Decius and Diocletian, a 
more general opposition was stirred up against 
Christianity than at any previous period. An 
attempt was made throughout the empire to sup- 
press the churches, and prevent the further spread 
of the faith. Actual violence, however, appears to 
have been offered only to the bishops and leading 
ecclesiastics, while the humbler converts were sel- 
dom molested. Numbers of the clergy doubtless 
suffered imprisonment and death, exactly how 
many it is now impossible to determine. The 
occasion of these more general persecutions is 
doubtless to be discovered in the increasing claims 
of the new religion to exclusive recognition and 
universal supremacy, — claims which threatened to 
override, not only the ancient religion of the 
empire, but also its secular authority. Even 
Dean Milman refers it in part also to the 
relaxation of morals in the Christian communities, 
and the growth of the spirit of ecclesiastical domi- 
nation, with its accompanying dissensions and 
jealousies. 

Extent of the Persecutions.— Exaggeration o£ 
Hiater Historians. 

In reviewing the subject of the persecution and 
martyrdom of the Christians under the empire 
from the stand-point of an impartial investigator 
of the historical evidence, the conclusion is un- 
avoidable that the extent an£ enormity of these 

of the Acta Martyrum is of doubtful authenticity ; the 
very minutiae of the recital suggest doubt of its reality : 
while the names "Eternal Life" (Vivia Perpetua) and 
"Happiness" (Felicitas) suggest an allegorical rather than 
an historical interpretation of the narrative. 



THE MARTYR PERIOD 253 

acts of the Pagan emperors have been greatly 
exaggerated by Christian historians and apolo- 
gists. Admitting that there is a substantial foun- 
dation for the charges of oppression, violence, and 
infliction of the penalty of death in many in- 
stances, these enormities sink into insignificance 
compared with those perpetrated by Christian 
authority in later times. Gibbon estimates the 
total number of the martyrs at about two thou- 
sand, and asserts that "the number of Protestants 
who were executed by the Spaniards during a single 
reign and in a single province far exceeded that 
of the primitive martyrs in the space of three 
centuries of the Roman Empire." Niebuhr, whose 
candor and impartiality can hardly be doubted, 
confirms the opinion of Dodwell and other his- 
torians that the persecution of Galerius and 
Diocletian, generally affirmed to be the most gen- 
eral and disastrous of all, was a mere shadow 
compared with the persecution of the Protestants 
in the Netherlands by the Duke of Alva. Accord- 
ing to Grotius, the number of Dutch martyrs was 
at least one hundred thousand. Motley says of 
these persecutions : "The barbarities committed 
amid the sack and ruin of those blazing and starv- 
ing cities are almost beyond belief. Unborn infants 
were torn from the bodies of their living mothers, 
. . . and whole populations were burned and 
hacked to pieces by soldiers in every mode which 
cruelty in its wanton ingenuity could devise." 
The Spanish Inquisition, during the eighteen years 
of Torquemada, punished, according to the lowest 
estimate, one hundred and five thousand persons, 



254 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

of whom eight thousand eight hundred were burnt 
alive. 

The persecutions of the Jews of Spain and 
Russia by the Christians furnish examples of 
barbarity and wholesale slaughter, before which 
even the crimes of Xero pale into obscurity and 
insignificance. In Andalusia, two thousand Jews 
were executed, and seventeen thousand otherwise 
punished, in a single year. In our own day, the 
annals of Jewish persecution in Russia and Bul- 
garia compare in infamy with the recitals of the 
worst atrocities of the early Christian ages. Rec- 
ollecting the treatment of the Indian and the 
negro in our own country, American Christians 
ought in all decency to refrain from slandering 
the memories of the dead Roman emperors. The 
Piegan massacre, in which an entire village of non- 
combatants — disabled old men, women, and little 
children — were put to the sword and fire, — an act 
to this day neither rebuked nor disavowed by the 
government, — closes our mouths forever from the 
indiscriminate censure and condemnation of Dio- 
cletian, Decius, and Marcus Aurelius. 

General Causes of the Persecutions. 

Bearing in mind the generally conceded policy 
of toleration toward alien religions which charac- 
terized the government of the Roman Empire, it is 
of great interest and importance to account for 
the apparent violation of this policy in the treat- 
ment of the Christians. The true explanation of 
the proven facts of the martyr period appears to 
lie largely in the character of the new religion 



THE MARTYR PERIOD 255 

itself, and in a general and not unnatural miscon- 
ception of some of its noteworthy customs, ideas, 
anc' dogmas on the part of the populace and those 
in authority. All the other religions which, with 
the growth of the empire, came in contact with 
the popular faith and attracted the attention of the 
government, were ethnic and limited in their sway, 
and did not aim at universal dominion. Hence, 
they were mutually tolerant within their respective 
spheres. Rome, as the capital of the empire, rec- 
ognized and to some extent assimilated them. 
Judaism alone of the older faiths was intolerant, 
exclusive, and repelled recognition and assimila- 
tion. Christianity was never an ethnic religion : 
it aimed from the first at universal dominion. 
From its very nature, it could admit of no compro- 
mise with the idolatrous Paganism of the nations. 
It resolutely refused to be combined with other 
faiths, or assimilated into the eclectic cultus of the 
capital. It resented the tolerance and indifference 
of Rome with an intolerant demand for exclusive 
recognition. 

Erecting no altars and offering no sacrifices, de- 
nying the very existence of the gods of Rome, meet- 
ing in secrecy, contrary to the laws of the empire, 
admitting none save those who had been united 
with them by the ordinance of baptism to partici- 
pation in their worship, the Christians came to be 
regarded naturally and not without reason as inim- 
ical to the popular religion, and as a source of 
danger to the security of the State. Exaggerated 
reports concerning the character of their baptismal 
ceremony and their "love-feasts" not unnaturally 



256 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

gave rise to popular suspicions of the general prev- 
alence of immorality in the Christian communities. 
The New Testament Epistles and patristic writ- 
ings contain abundant evidence that these sus- 
picions were not wholly unwarranted. Paul's 
doctrine of a new life outside the sanctions of the 
law was doubtless as grievously misinterpreted in 
many instances as were the ethical precepts of 
Epicurus. This fact is conceded by able Chris- 
tian writers. Prof. Lindsay, of Glasgow Univer- 
sity, says : "In the Epistles of Paul, we find evi- 
dence that many of the Gentile Christians were 
even disposed to think of the new life of Christi- 
anity as one entirely outside the realm of ordinary 
moral law. This lawless or immoral tendency 
was strongly checked in the Christian Church, and 
only gained headway in the sects outside of it; 
but traces of the tendency are not infrequent." 

In rightly estimating the circumstances of the 
period under consideration, however, we should not 
forget that there was no authoritative Church at 
this time, — no generally recognized consensus of 
Christian belief and practice, — but only as yet a 
number of distinct and unrelated communities, 
differing in customs and in doctrine, but all claim- 
ing the Christian name. Although the influence 
and authority of the Church at Rome were begin- 
ning to be recognized by a considerable portion of 
these communities, and the orthodox faith was 
endeavoring to clarify itself from the heresies of 
the sects, it yet lacked the power to enforce its 
authority ; and, so far as the general public could 
see or understand, all the churches claiming the 



THE MARTYR PERIOD 257 

name of Christian had an equal right to it. Some 
of the Gnostic sects were openly given to immoral 
practices. A system akin to Plato's proposed cus- 
tom of "complex marriage" prevailed in certain 
communities claiming the Christian name ; and we 
even have authentic testimony to the fact that a 
bishop held a view of the obligations of Christian 
hospitality which involved a practical recognition 
of this odious system.* Facts of this kind, though 
only occasionally coming to the surface, would 
naturally prejudice the people and their rulers 
against the entire body of Christian believers. 

We have already alluded to the popular miscon- 
struction of the doctrine of the approaching de- 
struction of the world by fire, in connection with 
the conflagration at Rome, which served as the 
excuse for the persecutions of Nero. In a like 
manner, a misunderstanding of the Christian sac- 
rament of the eucharist, conceived symbolically or 
actually as the body and blood of Christ, doubt- 
less gave rise to the rumor that children were sac- 
rificed and eaten at the secret evening repasts. It 
is noteworthy that a similar slanderous accusation 
has often been the occasion of Christian persecu- 
tion of the Jews; and this belief still prevails 
among the ignorant people in Russia, Bulgaria, 
and the East.f 

* History of the Christian Church, vol. iii. By Rev. Dr. 
Philip Schaff. 

1 "The Christianity which the emperors aimed at repress- 
ing was," says Matthew Arnold, "in their conception of it, 
something philosophically contemptible, politically sub- 
versive, and morally abominable. As men, they sincerely 
regarded it much as weil-conditioned people among us re- 
gard Mormonism ; as rulers, they regarded it much as lib- 
eral statesmen with us regard the Jesuits."— Essay on 
Marcus Aurelius. 



258 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 
The AIoHtanists : Their Beliefs and Practices. 

Many of the later martyrs were affiliated with 
the peculiar sect known as Montanists, from one 
Montanus, their founder, a native of Phrygia. This 
sect originated about the middle of the second 
century. Its doctrines were, in some respects, a 
survival — in others, an exaggeration and distortion 
— of the early Christian belief. The Montanists 
were, as nearly as possible, the exact counterparts 
of the Gnostics, against whose peculiar doctrines 
they uttered their severest protest. They believed 
in the continuance of the miraculous gifts said to 
have been possessed by Jesus and the apostles, in 
prophecy by supernatural inspiration, in ecstasy 
and "speaking with tongues," in prolonged fasting 
and other ascetic observances. In opposition to 
the growing power of the presbyters and bishops, 
they taught the doctrine, naturally drawn from the 
principles of Pharisaic Judaism, of a universal 
priesthood, in whose ranks they even included 
women. They saw in the ecstatic phenomena of 
hysteria the manifestations of a supernatural 
power. In some respects, the Montanists were pro- 
totypes of the modern Quakers, believing their 
"mediums" or prophets to be the immediate recip- 
ients of divine inspiration. They retained the 
primitive Christian anticipation of the early de- 
struction of the world, and the return of Christ 
in glory to reign over a regenerated earth. In 
praying, "Thy kingdom come," they therefore 
prayed literally, as did Jesus and his disciples, for 
the end of the world. They exercised fanatical 
severity in discipline, requiring unmarried women 



THE MARTYR PERIOD 259 

to go veiled, forbidding any to wear ornaments or 
any save the plainest and simplest clothing. Tney 
regarded marriage as merely a concession to the 
sensual nature of man, and forbade second mar- 
riages as adultery. They taught the impossibility 
of a second repentance, and the eternal punish- 
ment of the unregenerate. Tertullian, one of their 
chief representatives, held that there were seven 
mortal sins, which, if committed after baptism, 
were unpardonable, and doomed the sinner to 
eternal perdition. 

These fanatical people, with their hysterical 
visions and ecstasies, their secret assemblies and 
social exclusiveness, their rigid asceticism and irra- 
tional millennarianism, were regarded by the popu- 
lace very much as witches and professors of the 
"black art" were looked upon during the preva- 
lence of the witchcraft delusion in Europe and 
America. The educated public sentiment of the 
time abhorred the professors of magic and sorcery ; 
and, while not sufficiently comprehending the 
method of science to regard alleged supernatural 
phenomena as the result of fraud, delusion, or 
abnormal physical and nervous conditions, they 
assigned to them a significance and an origin 
wholly evil, and regarded their practitioners as 
worthy of condign punishment. 

The Christian persecutions, therefore, were a 
natural consequence of ignorance, credulity, and 
superstition on both sides. While the Christians 
often suffered from unjust accusations, and, in 
the persons of their leaders, probably represented 
a higher standard of morality than that which 



260 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

generally prevailed in corresponding social circles 
in Pagan society, on the other hand, individuals, 
and even entire congregations, were open to just 
charges of immorality anc? gross superstition. It 
is hardly to be wondered at that indignation, justly 
aroused against a few, should often expend itself 
upon those who were blameless. The new doc- 
trine, but little understood, was sometimes con- 
demned, in the persons of its most worthy de- 
fenders, for evils which appeared in the lives of 
some of its professors, even as free thought and 
rational religion in our own day often suffer un- 
merited odium, owing to the unworthy lives of 
some of their advocates. 



Derelopnient of Christian Doctrine: Incarnation 
and Atonement. 

During this period, two leading doctrines of the 
Christian faith took form, and finally became 
recognized as fundamental to the Christian sys- 
tem. These were the doctrines of the divine 
incarnation and atonement for sin by an expiatory 
sacrifice, involving the shedding of blood. The 
latter, prefigured in the ancient Hebrew faith, was 
no less also a doctrine of the popular Pagan relig- 
ion. Personal mutilation, the sacrifice of animals, 
and even at times of human beings, characterized 
a certain phase in the development of nearly all 
the early religions of the world ; and, accompany- 
ing these rites, we find the belief in their placat- 
ing or atoning efficacy. One of these rites, often 
celebrated at this period, was the taurobollum, or 



THE MAKTYIl PERIOD 261 

criobolium, a kind of baptism in the blood of a 
sacrificed bull or ram. In the performance of 
this rite, the worshipper stood naked beneath a 
perforated platform, and was drenched from head 
to foot in the blood of the slaughtered animal. 
This horrible experience was thought to be a 
certain ransom from all sin, and a pledge of 
happiness in the life to come. As the worshipper, 
reeking with the deluge of blood, passed out 
through the crowd, the people pressed around 
him to win some share, even by a touch of the 
atoning blood, in his salvation from the conse- 
quences of sin. The doctrine of salvation by the 
blood of Christ appropriately took form during 
the sanguinary period of the martyrs ; and Origen 
even attributes a saving efficacy to the blood 
of the persecuted followers of the Nazarene, of a 
like character to that claimed for the blood of 
Christ. 

The doctrine of the incarnation was never a 
Jewish belief, and was absorbed by Christianity 
directly from heathenism. "We have, then," says 
Prof. Allen, "in the mind of Paganism at this 
epoch, the two characteristic religious ideas of 
the age — incarnation and expiatory sacrifice- 
distinctly conceived and plainly developed. . . . The 
important thing to notice of them is that they are 
the ideas of that age. They are not peculiar to 
Christianity: it would be truer to say that, in 
origin and essence, they are rather Pagan than 
Christian. That they had a powerful effect in 
shaping the Christian belief there can be no doubt. 
At least, they predisposed the mind of the Roman 



262 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHMSTIANITI 

world to accept that belief so broadly and so easily 
as it did."* 

Justin Martyr was one of the earliest of the 
Christian Fathers to place especial emphasis upon 
the doctrine of salvation by the blood of Christ. 
He also recognized the likeness of the Christian 
ceremony of the eucharist to certain heathen rites. 
In his First Apology, he says : "Of the food 
called by us Eucharist, no one is allowed to par- 
take but him who believes the truth of our doc- 
trines, and who has been washed with the washing 
that i3 for the forgiveness of sins and to regenera- 
tion, and who so lives as Christ has directed. For 
we do not receive them as ordinary food or ordinary 
drink ; but as, by the word of God, Jesus Christ, 
our Saviour, was made flesh, ... so also the food 
which was blessed by the prayer of the Word 
which proceeded from him ... is, we are taught, 
both the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was 
made flesh. . . . The same thing in the mysteries 
of Mithra, also, the evil demons initiated and 
caused to be done ; for bread and a cup of water 
are placed in the mystic rites for one who is to be 
initiated, with the addition of certain words, as 
you know or may learn." In his dialogue with 
the Jew, Trypho, he adduces many alleged sym- 
bols of the blood of Christ from the Hebrew 
writings and ceremonials, arguing particularly 
from the expression, "washing his robe in the 
blood of the grape," which he connects with 
Jesus' Oriental and symbolical statement, "This 
is my blood," that Jesus could have had no human 

* Christian History, vol. i. "The Mind of Paganism." 



THE MARTYR PERIOD 263 

parentage, but was in fact the son of that God 
who made the grape and the vine. 

The Christianity of this period, as well as the 
apostolic age, was deeply tainted with irrational 
superstitions. Justin Martyr was a firm believer 
in the active influence of demons in human affairs. 
Athenagoras, whom Dr. Jackson alleges to have 
been "the superior of all in his own age, in liter- 
ary merit and broad philosophical culture," and 
who wrote "the best defence of the Christians of 
his age,"* alludes, as to an uncontradicted fact, 
to "the angels who have fallen from heaven and 
haunt the air and the earth, and are no longer 
able to rise to heavenly things, and the souls of 
giants who are the demons who wander about the 
world." Elsewhere, in the tone of the Persian 
dualism, he speaks of "the Prince of Matter, who 
exercises a control and management contrary to 
the good that is in God." 

From the demonism and puerile superstition of 
the Christian Fathers, mingled though it is with 
powerful arguments for monotheism and against 
idolatry, and with injunctions for a higher purity 
of thought and life, we and the rational world will 
henceforth turn to the lofty ethics, the pure spirit 
uality, the refined culture and noble life of Marcu? 
Aurelius, the Stoic emperor, as to a well of re- 
freshment after passing through a parched and 
barren desert. Surely, the closer we approach to 
the source of that religion under the influence of 
which we have been reared and nurtured, the 
more clearly do we perceive it to be no unique or 

* Christian Literature Primers. 



264 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

infallible system of thought and belief, but rather 
of like texti.re and character with all the other 
religions of the world. It is divine as they are 
divine, — as the world and all things therein are 
divine, — and no otherwise. It is human as they 
are human, fallible as they are fallible. It arose 
by a natural process of evolution out of pre-exist- 
ing systems, to complete the overthrow of the pre- 
vailing though effete polytheistic cultus, and to 
supplement the narrowness and partialism of the 
decaying ethnic religions by the principles of uni- 
versalism and human brotherhood. In the pres- 
ence of its errors and its superstitions, and equally 
of the good that is in it, our conceit of Christian 
infallibility drops away, from very shame. We 
can doubt no longer that in every land and every 
faith may be traced, together with much human 
imperfection, the working of the Power Eternal 
that brings beauty from ashes, order from chaos, 
a nobler humanity from the conflicts of the ages, 
and in the future will evolve from the turmoil 
and contradictions of our present social order a 
new and yet diviner manhood. 

In looking back, finally, over the period now 
under discussion, we cannot doubt that the suffer- 
ings and deaths of the Christian martyrs were 
powerfully instrumental in promoting and estab- 
lishing the new religion. This, however, is a phe- 
nomenon not peculiar to any single form of faith. 
So has it always been since the world began. 
That cause, that opinion, for which people willingly 
g've their lives, is ever on the road to triumph. 



THE MART V P PERIOD 265 

"The head that once was bowed to earth 

Up in the heavens now towers, 
And the martyr of a former day 

Becomes the saint of ours. 
While he who now, denounced and scorned, 

Speaks boldly for the right, 
Shall in the glorious futu^ shine 

A prophet, crowned with light. 



"The Man rejected and despised 

Is worshipped and adored, 
The felon scorned and crucified 

Becomes a glorious God; 
And, bright with gold, that blood-stained cross, 

The emblem once of shame, 
Raised high above all other signs, 

Exalts his blessed name. 
And thus the truth,— the hated truth,— 

Each day still mightier grown, 
Doth move the nations by its power, 

And make the world its own." 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION. 

Divorce between the Popular Faith and Scho- 
lastic Theology. 

The student of the ethnic religions, in the earlier 
periods of their development, must often have noted 
the fact that their dogmatic and ritualistic pecul- 
iarities, as reported in their sacred literatures, are 
frequently artificial accretions — the speculative 
and formal productions of an established priest- 
hood — rather than genuine presentations of the 
spontaneous and natural faith of the people. The 
beliefs and practices of the masses often have very 
little in common with the dogmas and ceremonies 
of the established religion. In India, for many 
generations, all save the priestly caste were for- 
bidden the study of the Vedas ; and recent investi- 
gations of able scholars, like Barth * and Haug,f 
would assign to these sacred writings a priestly 
rather than a popular origin. In China, Confu- 
cianism, with its remarkable freedom from super- 
naturalism and its pure morality, has always been 
the religion of the State and of the educated classes, 
far removed from the superstitions of the majority. 

* The Religions of India. By A. Barth. 
t The Religion of the Parsis. 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 267 

Zoroastrianism was confessedly a religion of the 
priesthood. Buddhism has its esoteric philosophy, 
its refined system of metaphysics, remote from 
its popular dogmas and from the noble ethical 
teachings of its founder. Greece and Rome had 
their secret rites and doctrines for the few ; while 
the many cultivated the religion of the domestic 
altar, and fed their religious natures upon super- 
stitions such as are connected with all primitive 
animistic beliefs. The religion of Egypt also 
presents like phenomena. We may well pause a 
moment to inquire whether there are any evidences 
of a similar divorce of the thought of the educated 
few from the lives and opinions of the many in 
the history of primitive Christianity. 

Testimony of the Patristic Literature. 

If we were to look for evidence solely to the 
literature of the Fathers, we would discover no 
indications of such a divergence between the popu- 
lar and scholastic beliefs. These writings present 
only one side of the question, — that of the dog- 
matic theologian. Here, we observe a steady 
tendency toward the condemnation and elimina- 
tion of heresies, and the consolidation of that 
hierarchical system which finally triumphed in the 
supremacy of the Catholic Church. In Irenaeus, 
writing during the last quarter of the second 
century, we find nearly all the Christian dogmas 
fully developed. The divine incarnation, the 
miraculous birth, the sacrificial eucharist regarded 
as the actual flesh and blood of Jesus, the belief 
in the second coming of Christ, the vicarious 



268 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

atonement, apostolic succession, and the eterna. 
punishment of unbelievers, — all these doctrines are 
•plainly set forth in his writings. Origen, writing 
about the middle of the third century, did indeed 
suggest the possible salvation of all men ; but his 
belief, borrowed probably from Oriental sources, 
was exceptional and heretical. The teachings of 
Christian scholars tended more and more to a 
consensus of agreement upon the principal articles 
of their faith. The supreme emphasis came to 
be placed upon "right belief," upon intellectual 
dogma, rather than upon the ethical quality of the 
daily life. In defence of these dogmas, the leaders 
of the Church were ready to anathematize and 
persecute the heretics of their own communion, or 
to offer up their lives as martyrs rather than 
accede to the demand of the State that they should 
renounce their creed, and offer sacrifice to the gods 
of Rome. 

The Catacombs : their Significant Testimony. 

It is, nevertheless, true that we have conclusive 
evidence that the belief of the majority was widely 
different from that which is revealed to us in 
Christian literature. As the Egyptian tombs, with 
their sculptures and paintings, testify to the habits 
and ideas of that ancient people, correcting the 
long prevalent opinion derived from their later 
theology that they were of a gloomy and ascetic 
disposition, so in the sculptures and mural paint- 
ings of the catacombs we discover the natural 
historical corrective of the one-sided evidence pre- 
sented in the writings of the theologians. 

The catacombs were subterranean places of 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 269 

burial of great extent. From a single central hall, 
or chamber, radiated labyrinthine passages contain- 
ing many places of sepulture, each of which, when 
occupied, was sealed up, and identified by mural 
paintings or sculptures and suitable h scriptions. 
This use of the catacombs by the Christians dated 
from the beginning of the second century, and 
continued until early in the fifth century. In 
their central halls and subterranean passages, also, 
for many generations, they were accustomed to 
meet secretly for religious purposes. Later, when 
there was no longer any need of secrecy connected 
with the ceremonials of burial and religious meet- 
ings, the catacombs fell into disuse ; and from the 
sixth to the fourteenth century they were buried 
and forgotten. Even our modern historians have 
in general neglected to note the remarkable and 
invaluable testimony of the catacombs to the pop- 
ular beliefs of the early Christian centuries. 

This testimony, it will be observed, is contem- 
poraneous with the period of the development of 
the dogmatic theology, with the contest of Chris- 
tianity with Orientalism and the Gnostic heresies, 
and with the Christian martyrdoms; yet we find 
here few evidences that these circumstances and 
ideas materially affected the lives and thought of 
the masses of the people. A remarkable inscription 
at the entrance of the catacomb of St. Sebastian 
in Rome affirms, indeed, that one hundred and 
seventy-four thousand martyrs repose there in 
peace ; but the absence of other corroborative tes- 
timony, and the conflicting evidence of the inscrip- 
tions on the tombs themselves, justify us in 



270 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHR1STIAMTY 

regarding this as a theological exaggeration of a 
later period. All the Christians who died during 
the time of the persecutions appear to have been 
regarded subsequently as "martyrs," though they 
did not personally surfer the punishment of death. 
The estimate of Gibbon, referred to in our last 
lecture, is doubtless much nearer the truth of 
history than this pious exaggeration.* 

Character of the Mural Paintings. 

One familiar with the patristic literature is at 
once struck by the apparently incongruous fact 
that paintings and artistic representations are to 
be found at all upon Christian tombs of this 
period. The early Fathers of the Church almost 
without exception followed the Jewish prejudice, 
and condemned art as impious and sacrilegious. 
The general character of these burial-places is 
Jewish rather than Pagan, but the artistic de- 
velopment connected therewith is distinctively 
Pagan. "It is as if the popular sentiment had not 
only run counter to the popular theology," says 
Dean Stanley, "but had been actually ignorant of 
it."f The subjects of these artistic representa- 
tions, though frequently drawn from Hebrew or 
Christian legends, are almost wholly ignored by 
contemporary Christian writers. The prevailing 

*For an interesting account of the catacombs of the 
earlier period, see Stanley's Christian Institutions; for a 
general description, see also article "Catacombs," Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica, Milman's History of Christianity, 
etc. The inscription above alluded to was manifestly 
engraved after the catacomb had been fully occupied, and 
bad fallen into disuse. Its use of the word "martyr" does 
not indicate that all or any considerable portion of the 
inmates suffered a violent death. 

t Christian Institutions. 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 271 

character of the early theological writings is arid, 
gloomy, and repelling; but the art of the earlier 
catacombs is uniformly cheerful and joyous. In the 
oldest mural paintings, we find neither the cross of 
the fifth and sixth centuries, nor the crucifix or cru- 
cifixion of the later Catholic period, nor the cypress, 
skeletons, and death's heads of a still more recent 
time. In the place of these "sad emblems of mor- 
tality," there are wreaths of roses, vines and 
clusters of grapes, winged genii, and playing chil- 
dren. 

Of Old Testament subjects, we find representa- 
tions of the creation, the salvation of Isaac from 
sacrifice, the stag panting for the water-brooks, 
Moses smiting the rock for water, Jonah and the 
whale, Jonah and the gourd, Daniel in the lions' 
den, the three children in the fiery furnace, and 
Susanna and the elders ; of New Testament subjects, 
the raising of Lazarus, the adoration of the magi, 
the feeding of the multitude, Zaccheus in the syca- 
more tree, the healing of the paralytic, the washing 
of Pilate's hands, and the denial and seizing of 
Peter. A figure representing the deceased in the 
Oriental attitude of prayer, standing erect, with 
hands outstretched to receive the gifts of heaven, 
and with open eyes, is of very common occurrence. 
Even more perfect representations of this posture in 
adoration are found in heathen art of this period. 
The description of one of these might equally well 
be applied, says Dean Stanley, to the painting on 
the catacomb of St. Priscilla : "His eyes and arms 
are raised to heaven ; perfect in humanity, beneath 
the lightsome vault of heaven he stands, and prays, 



272 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

— no adoration with veiled eyes and muttering 
lips, no prostration with the putting off of sandals 
on holy g:ound, no genuflexion like the bending 
of a reed waving in the wind, but such as Iamus 
in the mid-waves of Alpheius might have prayed 
when he heard the voice of Phoebus calling to 
him, and promising to him the twofold gift of 
prophecy."* The conception of prayer herein 
typified, so different from that which pessimistic 
asceticism transmitted to us through the Roman 
hierarchy, is one among many evidences which the 
catacombs present to us of the close relation which 
the popular phase of primitive Christianity bore to 
the milder forms of Paganism in the midst of 
which it had its being. 

Heathen and Christian Symbolism commingle* 

Many of the decorations of the Christian tombs 
were borrowed directly from heathen sources. 
Here we find Orpheus playing on his harp to the 
beasts, the infant Bacchus represented as the god 
of the vintage, and the winged Psyche, symbol of 
the soul. The soul itself is often pictured escaping 
from the body in the form of a bird. Christian 
and heathen symbolism are frequently mingled in 
the same picture : e.g., the Good Shepherd appears 
surrounded by the three Graces; Apollo with his 
pipes often seems to have served as the model for 
the gracious figure of the Man of Nazareth. More 
frequently than any other impersonation that of 

♦Quoted by Dean Stanley in Christian Institutions. 
Those who listened to the discourses of the eloquent 
Hindu, Protap Chunder Mozoomdar, during his recent 
visit to this country, will remember that he assumed this 
Oriental posture d iring prayer. 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 273 

the Good Shepherd appears in the paintings of the 
catacombs, — a graceful form in the bloom of youth, 
with pipe or crook, strikingly similar to the 
Hermes Kriophorus, "Mercury with the ram," — a 
common figure in the heathen art of the time. 
Sometimes, he is represented as bearing a lamb in 
his arms. Once even, in defiance, not only of the 
orthodox dualism, but in apparent ignorance of 
the sharp distinction conveyed in words attributed 
to Jesus himself, instead of a lamb we find pict- 
ured a young goat, a kid. This incident, and the 
divorce which it indicates between the theology of 
the polemical writers and the simple beliefs of the 
people, are beautifully treated in the familiar poem 
of Matthew Arnold : — 

"'He saves the sheep, the goats he doth not save' ; 
So spake the fierce Tertullian. 

But she sighed, 
The infant Church. Of love she felt the tide 
Stream on her from the Lord's yet recent grave, 
And then she smiled, and in the Catacombs, 
"With eye suffused, but heart inspired true, 
She her Good Shepherd's hasty image drew, 
And on his shoulder not a lamb, but kid." 

lt**criptious: Summary of the Evidence of the 
Catacombs. 

The character of the earlier inscriptions of the 
catacombs harmonizes with their artistic symbolism. 
Of dogma, we find absolutely nothing. Of purely 
religious phrases, two notable expressions frequently 
recur : In pace, "In peace" ; and Vive in Deo, "Live in 
God." Sometimes, we find Vive in Bono, "Live in 
the Good." Most frequent of all the inscriptions, 
however, are simple expressions of natural affection, 



274 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

exhibiting no theological bias whatever : "My most 
sweet wife" ; "My most dear husband" ; "My well- 
deserving father and mother"; "My most sweet 
child" ; "Innocent little lamb." In one place, we 
read that a husband and wife "lived together with- 
out any complaint or quarrel, without taking or giv- 
ing offence." The simplicity of these inscriptions 
is evidence of a sincerity and truthfulness that it is 
to be feared are sometimes wanting in the elaborate 
eulogies of our modern churchyard literature. Of 
the heathen monuments of this period, Prof. Allen 
declares, "The inscriptions sometimes express a 
pious and humble trust in terms curiously like 
those of the Christian monuments."* In the pres- 
ence of a great and impressive event, a common 
human nature stands revealed behind the masques 
of the most varying creeds. 

To sum up this testimony of the early catacombs, 
it may be said that we find here no elaborate 
Christology, no deification of Jesus, no trinitarian 
dogma, no horror of eternal punishment, no theol- 
ogy even, save the simplest expression of theism. 
We find evidence of a Christianity scarcely differ- 
entiated from the surrounding Paganism, save 
in its disuse of polytheistic symbols ; but little 
affected by theological controversies or state per- 
secutions ; cherishing gladly a simple trust in the 
leadership of that Good Shepherd in whose fold 
there was no distinction of birth, of riches, or of 
social position. 

Differentiation of Christianity from Paganism. 

There thus seem to be many points of agreement 
between the popular conception of Christianity 

* Christian History. By Joseph Henry Allen. 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 275 

and the contemporary Paganism, the chief differ- 
ence, superficially noticeable, appearing to be that 
from the former all polytheistic implications were 
excluded. Wherein, then, shall we find the secret 
of their divergence? Wherein, the motive of the 
impulse which led the devotees of the new faith to 
forsake and contemn the old? What elements 
can we discover, held in common by all the Chris- 
tian believers of this period, which will account for 
the rapid progress of the new religion, and for the 
general favor with which it was greeted by the 
common people? 

Evidently, the distinguishing characteristics of 
the growing faith were not those of notable moral 
superiority. The careful student of this period can 
hardly fail to confirm the conclusion of Dr. Hedge, 
that the primitive Church did not aim primarily at 
good behavior. "Had this been the end," he 
declares, "there would have been a rapid and 
marked improvement in the morals of society. 
But no such improvement appears."* The admo- 
nitions of Paul and of the Fathers prove, on the 
contrary, that the worst of social conditions were 
not uncommon within the bosom of the Christian 
communities. That feature in the teaching of 
Jesus and the apostles which avoided conflict with 
the constituted authorities by inculcating the 
doctrine of non-resistance ; which regarded a tem- 
porary submission to social injustices as preferable 
to active protest and forceful opposition, in view 
of the speedy destruction of the existiug order of 

* Article "Christianity in Conflict with Hellenism," in 
Unitarian Review. By B rederic Henry Hedge, D.D. 



276 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

the world,— lent itself readily to the methods of 
designing theologians, and retarded the practical 
application of the ethical principles of the Gospels 
in the reorganization of society. One principle 
there was, however, which was so interwoven with 
the fundamental universalism of the new faith 
that it could not be kept wholly in abeyance, — the 
new and radical social doctrine of the equality of 
all men in the sight of God, the foundation of the 
Christian socialism of the Gospels, which was so 
mighty a power to bring hope and better promise 
for the future to the poor, the weary, and the 
heavy-laden. Where, if not in this new social 
doctrine, shall we look for the impulse which car- 
ried the new faith onward through this troubled 
period of its infancy to its final triumph? The 
practical communism of the earliest generations * 
was indeed modified by the necessities of living 
and laboring in the midst of an antagonistic social 
order, but the great hope for the future endured. 
The kingdom of heaven was yet anticipated upon 
a regenerated earth. Here and there, the new doc- 

* "The early Christian communism was an expression of 
the essential spirit of original Christianity, not an accident, 
as many students of the Bible would have us believe. 
Other incidents of this story are unintelligible, except as 
they presuppose this curious state of things. In that 
dreadful legend of the early Christian community which 
is embodied in the Book of Acts, we find Peter exercising 
his supposed supernatural powers to strike dead Ananias 
and Sapphira for their lies. Apart from the miracle in- 
volved, the feeling of Peter is ethically incomprehensible, 
until we remember that their lying words covered actions 
which involved disloyalty to the fundamental institution 
of that early society. They had vowed their goods to the 
little Christian commune, and had kent back a part of the 
price. Their action was a fatal blow to the essential life of 
the community. Therefore, a singular manifestation of the 
effect of the first outpouring of the divine Spirit in the 
Christian Church was communism."— Rev. R. Heber Newton, 
in discourse preached May 24, 1885. 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 277 

trine reacted upon existing social conditions, tend- 
ing to reduce the barriers between classes and to 
improve the condition of the toiling poor. We 
may instance such evidences of this tendency as 
are presented in the story of one Hermas, a wealthy 
convert of the time of Trajan, who received bap- 
tism at an Easter festival, with his wife and chil- 
dren, and twelve hundred and fifty slaves, upon 
whom he subsequently bestowed their freedom, 
and gifts of money and property. One Chroma- 
tius, also, in the reign of Diocletian, is said to have 
had fourteen hundred slaves baptized with himself, 
after which they were emancipated.* 

The new faith, sustained by the hope of the 
coming recognition of human brotherhood, presses 
onward to its secular triumph. We are now to 
follow it, under the lead of Constantino, its great 
protector, to the throne of the Caesars. But, in 
this immense secular gain, how much is involved 
of loss, how much of this primitive simplicity, this 
freedom from dogmatism, this capacity for assimi- 
lating the better elements of the existing social 
order! The spirit of equality will retire yet 
further into obscurity, giving place to the rule of 
a despotic hierarchy. Heathen art, at first popu- 
larly welcomed to express the feelings of a 

* One can hardly wonder that the poor were ready to 
make any change in their religion which promised to im- 
prove their social condition. This wholesale baptism of 
slaves, however, throws a curious light upon the methods 
by which Christianity was so rapidly extended. It recalls 
the story of an army officer during the War of the Rebel- 
lion, who, on hearing of the conversion of thirty men in a 
rival regiment, under the exhortations of a revivalist, not 
to be outdone, ordered his corporal to detail at once a file 
of forty men for baptism ! The incidents above narrated 
are recorded in Dr. Philip Schaff's History of the Christian 
Church. 



278 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

common humanity, will be condemned and pro- 
hibited as impious. The Good Shepherd, the 
joyous and beautiful figure of the earliest Chris- 
tian conception, will give place to the Man of 
Sorrows, "with marred visage." The "life in 
God," after the death of the body, — the peaceful 
rest for the weary, — will give way to the pictured 
horrors of eternal torment. Dogmatic theology, 
at last triumphant, will touch and blight even the 
lives and hopes ot the common people. Slavery of 
the body will give place to a profounder enslave- 
ment and degradation of the intellect and reason, 
— a mental bondage for ages so complete that no 
Christian Epictetus shall arise to assert, "Although 
I am a slave, I also am a man.'" Europe, held in 
the iron embrace of an omnipotent ecclesiasticism. 
will hurry forward to the gloom of the Dark Ages 

" Tis true 'tis pity, 
And pity 'tis 'tis true." 

From Marcus Aurelius to Constautine. 

The period from the time of Marcus Aurelius to 
the final secular triumph of Christianity under 
Constantino, though it included the era of perse- 
cution, was marked by a steady increase in the 
number of Christian communities, by a growing 
boldness of the polemical writers in defence of the 
new theology, and also by certain notable indica- 
tions that the new faith was coming to be regarded 
as a possible factor of strength to the imperial 
government, in case it could be assimilated and 
directed to its support. For good or ill, Chris- 
tianity had become a recognized political power. 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 279 

It must either be systematically opposed and 
undermined, or accepted, and placed, if not above, 
at least upon an equality with the existing Pagan 
cultus. Considerations of state policy gather than 
of moral or religious principle appear to have 
actuated the successive wielders of the imperial 
power in their treatment of the growing faith. 
If any among them were influenced by higher 
motives than those of selfish aggrandizement, it 
was the great Stoic emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and 
Julian, whom Christian prejudice has named "the 
Apostate," but whose attempt to revive and purify 
the Pagan religion appears to have been actuated 
by a sincere abhorrence of what he deemed the 
errors and superstitions of Christianity .* Neither 
Constantino nor those earlier emperors, who vouch- 
safed a ^uasi-recognition of the government to the 
new faith by attempting to fuse it with Paganism, 
give evidence of a tithe of the sincerity and high- 
minded patriotism which impartial history concedes 
to Marcus and to Julian. 

The limits of this discussion forbid a detailed 
examination of the relations of the individual em- 
perors to Christianity. We must hasten on to 
the period of its secular triumph. Maximin, the 
predecessor of Constantino and Maxentius, was 
a man of dissolute and tyrannical character, whose 
early attitude toward Christianity was that of a 
persecutor. He prohibited the Christians from 
meeting in the cemeteries and catacombs, as had 
long been their custom ; he confiscated the prop- 

*"Tlie Emperor Julian's watchword was, 'The worship 
of the gods: no worship of dead men.'"— Seeley, Roman 
Imperialism. 



280 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

erty of the churches, waged war with the Christian 
State of Armenia, and even atttempted to reor- 
ganize the Pagan religion upon the model of the 
Christian episcopacy. Toward the close of his 
life, however, he apparently became convinced, 
not indeed of the moral error, but more probably 
of the impolicy of this course of action. He 
issued an edict of toleration, and commanded a 
cessation of all violent methods of persecution, 
recommending only the milder measures of per- 
suasion to win back the Christians to the faith of 
their fathers. His last imperial act was the pro- 
mulgation of an edict which restored to the 
churches their confiscated property, and proclaimed 
complete liberty of conscience in matters of 
religion throughout the empire. The subsequent 
course of his successor was therefore no abrupt 
and revolutionary change in the policy of the 
government. 

The Character ami Attitude of Constantine. 

The reign of Constantine witnessed the practi- 
cal dissolution of the Roman Empire by the 
removal of the capital to the Bosphorus, and the 
secular triumph of Christianity. As a political 
leader, a ruler of men, a captain of armies, this 
emperor well merits the title of "the Great." As 
an exemplar of religion and morals, he better 
merits the title of "the Infamous." He shrunk 
from no crime which seemed requisite to the 
furtherance of his insatiable ambition. Upon his 
hands was the blood of the weak and innocent as 
well as of his enemies in war, — of his own flesh and 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 281 

blood as well as of the stranger. "His father-in-law, 
his brother-in-law, Licinius, his own son, Crispus, 
his nephew, the son of Licinius, a boy eleven years 
old, and, lastly, his wife, Fausta, were his vic- 
tims." Such a man could in no high or spiritual 
sense have been converted to the simple, childlike 
faith, the ideal socialistic system, of the Man of 
Nazareth. It was the mythical Christ, and not the 
human Jesus, the Prophet of Righteousness, who 
commanded his allegiance. If anything in Chris- 
tian doctrine attracted his intellect, it was, doubtless, 
the convenient dogma of substitution and atone- 
ment, which appealed to his supreme egoism and 
selfish dread of that unknown future which the 
great emperor as well as the least of mankind was 
finally compelled to face. Not until the very 
close of his career, and upon his death-bed, did 
he profess repentance, and submit to Christian 
baptism, — an ordinance which, in the prevailing 
superstitious belief of the Christians, was effica- 
cious in sweeping away the penalty of all previous 
sins. 

Constantine's services to the Church were ren- 
dered while he was in the midst of his crimes, 
and before he had formally renounced the Pagan- 
ism of which he continued to be the Pontifex 
Maximus, — the legal and recognized head and 
chief. The story of his conversion to Christian- 
ity by a miraculous vision of the cross appears 
to rest wholly upon his own testimony. An ex- 
treme exercise of charity might lead us to inter- 
pret this alleged experience as a subjective illu- 
sion, similar to Paul's vision of the resurrected 



282 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

Jesus. More probably, however, it should be 
classed among pious frauds, and regarded as a 
pure invention of the emperor for the purpose of 
conciliating the Christians to his support. 

Constantino's Eclecticism : His Recogniton of 
Paganism. 

Constantine founded a number of Christian 
churches in Rome, contributed to their support 
from the public revenues, and even set apart a 
basilica within the Lateran palace as a place for 
Christian worship. Side by side with these tem- 
ples of the new religion, however, the worship of 
Cybele and the other Pagan deities continued 
unopposed even as late as the fifth century, — a 
hundred years after the recognition of Christianity 
by the empire. In Constantinople, the new capi- 
tal, Constantine not only erected several Christian 
churches, but also a temple to Rhea, the mother 
of the gods, one to Castor and Pollux, and one to 
Tyche, the fortune of the city. Christian histo- 
rians have claimed for him the credit of being the 
first to grant authoritative recognition of Sunday 
as the Sabbath, but the edict commanding its 
celebration makes no allusion to the day as a 
Christian institution. It was still devoted to the 
worship of the conquering solar deity. Apollo, 
Bacchus, Mithra, and Osiris had long received 
honor as incarnations of the sun-god. To these, 
the emperor, and apparently the popular senti- 
ment, now added Jesus, — a circumstance the more 
natural owing to the fact that the popular Chris* 
tian mythology, now fully developed, had drawn 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE ftELlGION 283 

many of its characteristic features from the solar 
mythus. The 25th of December was set apart as 
the birthday of the founder of Christianity; and 
the first day of the week became a holy day, 
devoted to his worship, — a common inheritance 
from the heathen cultus of the solar deity. About 
the same time that the public recognition of 
Sunday was made obligatory, Constantine issued 
orders to the haruspices to continue the heathen 
practice of divination on one or more notable occa- 
sions. He also placed the image of Apollo and 
the name of Jesus together on his coins. 

The Worship of the Emperor authorized and 
continued by Constantine. 

The worship of the Emperor, inaugurated by 
the Caesars, still continued, and received new 
impetus and recognition at the hands of Constan- 
tine. He went further than any of his predeces- 
sors in providing for his own post-mortem adora- 
tion, ordaining that thereafter, annually, a 
golden statue of himself should be carried in 
solemn procession through the streets of Rome, 
and that every citizen, including the reigning 
emperor, should prostrate himself before it. "On 
the top of a monolith of porphyry," says Dr. 
Hedge, "he placed a statue of Apollo, rededicated 
to himself, with a halo of rays formed, it is said, 
of nails taken from the cross [of Jesus] which 
[the Empress] Helena had brought from Jerusa- 
lem. Between the nails, the inscription : 'To 
Constantine, shining like the sun, presiding over 
his city, an image of the new risen Sun of Right- 



284 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

eousness.' This column, we are told, was long 
an object of formal worship to the Christians of 
Constantinople."* The adoration of the em- 
peror as an incarnate deity was transmitted, to- 
gether with the characteristic art of the early 
Church and many of the forms of primitive 
Christian worship, to the Oriental Church of our 
own day, the recognized head of which, the Czar 
of Russia, is still addressed by his subjects as 
"our God on earth." f 

Sectarian Disputes: The Donatists and Cir- 
cumcellions. 

Tyrant, murderer, and patron of idolatry as 
was this so-called Christian emperor, this pro- 
tector of the infant Church, he was excelled in 
cruelty and infinitely surpassed in bigotry by 
many of his Christian subjects. The African 
Church — fertile mother of an evil brood of irra- 
tional dogmas — became divided into two great 
sects, the Donatists and the Catholics. The 
former claimed to be the only elect people of 
Christ, the sole inheritors of apostolic succession. 
The latter stoutly resisted this exclusive claim. 
The battle of words soon culminated in appeals 
to physical force. When, by violence or artifice, 
the Donatists obtained possession of a church 
belonging to their opponents, they burned its 
altar, melted its cups, rebaptized all who desired 
to unite with their services, and even removed the 

♦Article in Unitarian Review, "Christianity in Conflict 
with Hellenism." 

t For an interesting account of the Oriental Church, see 
Dean Stanley's Lectures on the Eastern Church. 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 285 

bodies of dead Catholics from the common place 
of sepulture.* This feud ultimated in the most 
barbarous scenes of riot, massacre, and licentious- 
ness, to which both parties contributed, and in 
which they gloried. The Donatists boasted of 
their martyrs: the Catholics testify to their own 
barbarities, appealing to the examples of Moses, 
Joshua, and Elijah, to justify the wholesale de- 
struction of their opponents. Optatus, a Catholic 
bishop, exultingly cries, "Is the vengeance of God 
to be defrauded of its victims?" It is probable 
that more people perished in this earliest sectarian 
feud than the total number of Christian martyrs 
during the persecutions of the heathen emperors. 

"Where Christianity has outstripped civilization," 
says Dean Milman, . . . "whether in the bosom of 
an old society or within the limits of a savage life, 
it becomes, in times of violent excitement, instead 
of a pacific principle to assuage, a new element of 
ungovernable strife."! The same able historian 
thus describes the African Christian of the period 
now under consideration : "Of his new religion he 
retained only the perverted language, or rather that 
of the Old Testament, with an implacable hatred 
of all hostile sects ; a stern ascetic continence, which 
perpetually broke out into paroxysms of unbridled 
licentiousness; and a fanatic passion for martyr- 
dom, which assumed the acts of a kind of method- 
ical insanity ."J 

The Circumcellions, another of these fanatical 

* We are reminded of the present attitude of the Cath- 
olics toward those of other faiths,— an attitude which has 
often ultimated in acts almost as barbarous as those of the 
Donatists. 

t History of Christianity. X Ibid. 



286 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

sects, asserted the theory of the civil equality of 
mankind ; proclaimed the abolition of slavery ; took 
the master from his chariot and placed the slave in 
his stead, compelling the master to walk by his 
side ; declared all debts to be cancelled, and granted 
release to the debtors ; and, in defence of these 
doctrines, — which, indeed, have no inconsiderable 
foundation in the literal teachings of Jesus, — they 
proclaimed a crusade against the existing order of 
society. Abandoning their accustomed duties as 
agricultural laborers, they attacked all who refused 
to be governed by their interpretation of the gos- 
pel teachings. Since Jesus forbade his disciples to 
use the sword, declaring that "they who take the 
sword shall perish by the sword," the Circumcel- 
lions took huge clubs for their weapons, with which 
they beat their enemies to death. Their commu- 
nistic socialism resulted in habits of marital promis- 
cuity and unbridled licentiousness. Their bands 
of marauders in the name of Christ were accom- 
panied by troops of abandoned women, whom they 
called "sacred virgins." Their piratical leaders 
were denominated "captains of the saints." Some 
of these fanatical sects, of which we can here give 
but one or two specimen descriptions, were still 
powerful at the close of the sixth Christian cen- 
tury. 

The Conflict of the Creeds : Arias and Athanasins. 

During the reign of Constantine, the memorable 
theological conflict known as the Arian controversy 
culminated, and resulted in the formal proclamation 
of the doctrine of the Church concerning the 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 287 

nature of Christ and his relationship to the Supreme 
Being. This controversy, which appealed exclu- 
sively to the metaphysics of theology, grew directly 
out of the doctrine of the Logos, first formally 
accepted as an essential feature in the Christian 
faith by the authoritative recognition of the Fourth 
Gospel, in the latter part of the second century. 
The term Logos, in the mystical philosophy of the 
Alexandrian neo-Platonists, represented an attri- 
bute rather than a person, an emanation from the 
supreme Deity rather than the generic inheritor 
of his personality. The Logos was often described 
figuratively as the "Son of God," while it remained 
in the mind of the metaphysician as an attribute 
co-eternal with God himself, — not made by him, 
but an eternal manifestation of his divine nature. 
An attribute is of course forever inseparable from 
its subject. The Christian theologians, however, 
treated the figurative expressions of this Oriental 
mysticism as they had treated the Orientalisms of 
Paul and Jesus. They personified the attribute, 
and identified the Logos, regarded as the Son of 
God, with the man Jesus; torturing the Hebrew 
phrase of the Gospels, originally descriptive of 
citizenship of the heavenly kingdom, the regener- 
ated Jewish state, into a claim for a special and 
unique relationship between Jesus and the Father.* 
The Logos in Christian teaching was hyposta- 

* Ewald says of this term, "the Son of God" : "With it, 
the reigning king of Israel could formerly be distinguished 
before all other members of the community of God. ... It 
was first used, not to flatter the monarch, but in accord- 
ance with the strict idea of the true religion,— that, if all 
members of the community are children of God, elevated 
to this dignity by divine grace and education, and at the 
same time always called to remain faithful to this higher 



288 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

sized ; that is, as interpreted in the unyielding idiom 
of the Latin scholars, it was regarded as an inde- 
pendent substance, no longer merely as an attribute 
of God. In this rigid logic, this separate substance, 
endowed with personality, accredited with the 
affinity of sonship, could no longer be deemed 
co-eternal with the Father. Whether "first begot- 
ten/' as announced by Philo, or "only begotten," as 
proclaimed in the Christian epic, it must have had 
a genesis and beginning. Yet it was admitted that 
through all time the Son and Father had dwelt 
together as separate and co-equal persons. 

To the ordinary mind, here was an insoluble 
contradiction, but not so to the metaphysician. 
In his thought, time itself had had a beginning. 
Both the parties to the Arian controversy agreed 
that there was no fwnewhen the Father and Son 
did not dwell together as equal persons. Yet said 
Arius, a presbyter, "There was when the Son did 
not exist." The Father dwelt alone in that eter- 
nity which was before time began, — in that eternity 
which, in the cant of the current metaphysics, was 
not infinite duration, but the actual opposite or 
negation of duration. 

Moreover, said Arius, if the Logos was born or 

created, it could not be "of the same substance" 

Qoiioovgloq) with the Father, but could only be "of 

like substance" ('o/ioiovoiog). Around these two 

Greek words, differing in but a letter, and the 

stage of life, then the true King of the community is des- 
tined above every one else to attain such an exaltation, in 
order that he, as standing nearer to Grod than any one else, 
may enjoy more fully his grace and protection, while at 
the same time, should he depart from God, he must feel 
his chastisement most directly and most severely."— JSwald, 
p. 114. 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 289 

metaphysical notions which they represented, was 
waged the long and bitter battle of opposing theo- 
logical factions, — a battle whose weapons were not 
always spiritual or even logical, and in which no 
place remained for the manifestation of the sweet 
graces of Christian charity and brotherly love. In 
such a controversy, we of the present day can have 
but little interest. If the arguments of Arius 
were enforced by a more unyielding logic, the doc- 
trine and thought of his opponents were perhaps 
broader and more catholic than his; but the 
foundations of both parties rested in an arid waste 
of metaphysical speculation, as far removed as 
possible from the lofty ethical impulse which lay 
at the heart of the teaching of Jesus, and alien- 
ated from all rational conceptions of objective 
truth. 

Constantine at first apparently sympathized with 
the doctrine of Arius, in which was implied the 
superiority of the Father to the Son, but subse- 
quently threw the weight of his influence on the 
side of his great opponent, Athanasius, under 
whose leadership and inspiration the council of 
Nicaea finally formulated an authoritative state- 
ment of the orthodox belief in the following lucid 
terms : — 

"The Son is begotten from the substance of God, 
God begotten from God, light from light, very God 
from very God, begotten, not made, of the same sub- 
stance with the Father" * 

♦For an interesting popular account of the Arian con- 
troversy, see Christian History, by Joseph Henry Allen. 
See also Milman's History of Christianity, Chadwick's The 
Man Jesus, Savage's Talks about Jesus, etc. For more 
elaborate explanations, see Neander, Mosheim, Baur, etc. 



290 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN TY 
Constantine's Influence as Peace-maker. 

During all these theological controversies, Con- 
stantino maintained the position of a pacificator, 
endeavoring to bring harmony out of discord, to 
consolidate the growing Church into a powerful 
and homogeneous body, and to make it the support 
and ally of the imperial throne. Doubtless, he 
saw in the rapidly growing hierarchy the germs 
of a power which, through its influence on the 
conscience and credulity of the people, would soon 
be able to make and destroy empires, to sustain or 
overthrow dynasties and kings. With a practical 
shrewdness which allied itself with the profound- 
est wisdom of state-craft, he seized upon all pos- 
sible means to weld together the schismatic sects, 
and to bind the one holy and Catholic Church to 
the fortunes of the empire. He flattered the bish- 
ops, humbly claiming to be himself but as one of 
them ; yet, in the councils of the Church, he was 
always the power behind and above the ecclesias- 
tics, guiding their action according to his will. 

The radical divorce between dogmatic theology 
and true religion, between a recognition of the 
formal observances of ecclesiasticism and that 
essential nobility of character which constitutes 
the supreme beauty and glory of manhood, was 
never more completely exemplified than in the 
character and example of Constantine. We may 
admire his statesmanship, his shrewdness, his 
ability as a ruler ; but we must not permit our rec- 
ognition of these traits, or his position as the first 
Christian emperor, to lead us to regard him as in 
any sense a worthy representative of natural mo- 
rality or of true religion. 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 291 

Early Councils. The Formation of the Canon* 

The formation of the Christian Canon cannot be 
attributed to the influence of any single person 
or to the authority of any single council of the 
Church. Four men, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement 
of Alexandria, and Augustine, were chiefly instru- 
mental in determining the selection of the books 
now deemed canonical and inspired; and several 
of the early councils indorsed and confirmed their 
selection. Of these four men, Irenaeus was the 
earliest ; and his influence was the most important. 
Writing more than a hundred years before the first 
oecumenical or general council of the Church, his 
methods were uncritical, and his decisions, in most 
instances, were purely arbitrary. Prof. Davidson 
says of Irenaeus, Clement, and Tertullian : "The 
three Fathers of whom we are speaking had neither 
the ability nor inclination to examine the genesis 
of documents surrounded with an apostolic halo. 
No analysis of their authenticity or genuineness 
was seriously attempted. . . . Irenaeus was credu- 
lous and blundering; Tertullian, passionate and 
one-sided; and Clement of Alexandria, imbued 
wich the treasures of Greek wisdom, was mainly 
occupied with ecclesiastical ethics. . . . Their asser- 
tions show both ignorance and exaggeration." * 

The first collection of Christian writings, how- 
ever, was not formed by either of these distin- 
guished Fathers of the Church, bnt by Marcion, 
who, for his Pauline and Gnostic tendencies, was 

* The Christian Canon, by Samuel Davidson, D.D. See 
also abbreviated article by same author in Encyclopaedia 
Britannica. 



292 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

accounted a heretic. His collection contained one 
Gospel — not identical with either of our four 
canonical Gospels — and ten Epistles of Paul, which, 
however, he did not consider inspired or of divine 
authority. Irena3us arbitrarily selected our four 
Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles 
of Paul, the First Epistle of John, and the Revela- 
tion. In an appendix, as of less authority, he 
placed the Second Epistle of John, the First of 
Peter, and the Shepherd of Hermas. He rejected 
absolutely the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Second 
of Peter, the Third of John, Jude, and James. 
Clement of Alexandria, about 210 A.D., accepted 
all of our New Testament writings except the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, the Second of John and 
Jude, which, together with the Revelation of Peter, 
the Shepherd of Hermas, the Epistle of Barnabas, 
and the First Epistle of Clement, he placed in an 
appendix, as of secondary importance. Tertullian, 
about ten years later, ignored the Second Epistle 
of Peter, the Third of John and James, and de- 
clared Hebrews, Jude, Second John, and First Peter 
not to be authoritative, ranking them with the 
apocryphal Shepherd of Hermas. Many early col- 
lections of the Christian writings omitted the 
Apocalypse, which is still ignored by the Eastern 
Church. 

Besides numerous other fragmentary copies of 
the New Testament writings, there are four great 
manuscripts of the Greek Bible now extant. The 
Codex Sinailicus, at St. Petersburg, jrrobably the 
oldest of the four, dating, it is believed, from about 
the middle of the fourth century, contains not only 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 293 

the canonical books of the New Testament, but 
also the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of 
Barnabas, now deemed apocryphal. The Codex 
Vaticanus, at Rome, of but little later date, ends at 
Hebrews ix., 4, by mutilation. The Codex Alexan- 
drinus, in the possession of the British Government 
at London, includes the two Epistles of Clement of 
Rome in the New Testament collection. The 
Codex Ephraemi, at Paris, is a palimpsest ; i.e., it is 
written over another writing, still partially legible. 
It agrees, in the main, with the other codices, but 
is of later date, and less perfect and reliable. The 
variations in these earliest extant collections of the 
New Testament writings attest the fact that no 
general and complete agreement has ever been 
reached respecting the books deemed canonical or 
authoritative. 

The Council of Hippo, in Africa, in the year 393 
A.D., — Augustine being present as the ruling 
spirit, — declared the books of the Bible as at pres- 
ent published to be canonical, including the Old 
Testament Apocrypha, but omitting Lamentations. 
The Council of Carthage, four years later, — Augus- 
tine again being present, — confirmed this list, and 
ordered that no other books should be read in the 
churches under the title of "Sacred Scriptures." 
At a second Council of Carthage, A.D. 419, Augus- 
tine's selections were again ratified. There is 
nothing, however, in the action of these councils, or 
in the character of the men composing them, which 
would tend to sustain their authority as infallible 
or even reasonably just and intelligent. Dr. 
Philip SchafE,the orthodox historian of the Church, 



294 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

says of the bishops who constituted these councils, 
"Together with abundant talents, attainments, and 
virtues, there were gathered also . . . ignorance, in- 
trigues, and partisan passions, which had already 
been excited on all sides by long controversies pre- 
ceding, and now met and arrayed themselves, as 
hostile armies for open combat." * Nor is this mil- 
itant comparison a mere figure of speech, for vio- 
lent brawls and unseemly physical conflicts were 
not uncommon at these convocations. At the first 
Council of Nicaea, Nicholas, bishop of Myra, met 
the arguments of Arius by bestowing upon the jaw 
of that venerable presbyter such a violeD fc blow that 
a temporary disuse of that important organ of de- 
bate was rendered necessary. Of the third general 
council of the Church, held at Ephesus, Dr. Schaff 
declares that its proceedings were marked by 
"shameful intrigue, uncharitable lust of condemna- 
tion, and coarse violence of conduct."f Dean Mil- 
man affirms that "intrigue, injustice, violence, de- 
cisions on authority alone, and that the authority 
of a turbulent majority, decisions by wild accla- 
mation rather than sober inquiry, detract from 
the reverence, and impugn the judgments ... of 
the later councils." J The impartial historian can 
hardly perceive any valid reason for exempting the 
earlier councils from the same judgment. 

In the midst of such influences, civil and ecclesi- 
astical, as we have described, were born the "infal- 
lible Church" of Catholic Christianity and the "in- 
fallible Bible" of Protestantism. When we reflect 
soberly upon this phenomenon, so extraordinary in 

* History of the Christian Church. t Ibid. 

X History of Christianity. 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 295 

its alleged results, so human — not to say sometimes 
inhuman — in its means and methods, can we fail to 
conclude that there is not one particle of evidence 
to sustain the claims for infallibility made on be- 
half of either the Bible or the Church ? 

The Natural Evolution of Christianity. 

We are now approaching the conclusion of this 
discussion ; but, before we leave it for the consid- 
eration of matters of seemingly greater practical 
import, let us recall the leading features which 
have impressed themselves on our narrative of the 
historical evolution of Christianity, and draw from 
them such natural conclusions as we may concern- 
ing the genesis and development of the Christian 
faith. 

The rise, progress, and triumph of Christianity 
constitute indeed one of the most remarkable phe- 
nomena in the world's history. We cannot wonder 
that an uncritical people, regarding it superficially, 
have seen in it evidences of supernatural interven- 
tion and the working of a greater than human 
power. A careful study of the development of other 
religions, however, will illustrate the truth that the 
rapid growth of Christianity, though indeed re- 
markable, is not an entirely unique phenomenon in 
history. The spread of Buddhism was even more 
rapid, not only in its native India, but also among 
peoples of alien race, unlike civilization, and differ- 
ent religion. It still numbers more adherents than 
all the sects of Christendom combined. In later 
times, the growth of Mohammedanism during the 
lifetime of its founder far surpassed the progress 



296 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

made by Christianity in the earlier years of its ex- 
istence.* In our own day and in the lifetime of 
some of its members, the Brahmo-Somaj of India 
has converted some hundreds of thousands of the 
native population to its pure theistic faith. 

Many of the earliest converts to Christianity 
were drawn from the Jewish communities scattered 
among the cities of the Roman Empire. The dis- 
solution of the Jewish commonwealth and the 
distribution of its people throughout the nations 
thus became a natural influence of notable import 
in favoring the spread of the Christian faith. The 
new religion, however, influenced but little the Ju- 
daism of Palestine ; and the later accretion of myth 
and dogma imported into Christianity from Aryan 
and Egyptian sources speedily resulted in a sepa- 
ration of the Hebrew element, and cut short the 
progress of the growing faith among the people of 
its founder. 

Jesus, the Myth and the man. 

It is insisted by the dogmatic defenders of Chris- 
tianity, on the one hand, and by its dogmatic oppo- 
nents, on the other, that the New Testament narra- 
tives must either be accepted as a whole — the su- 
pernatural and miraculous elements included — or 
rejected entirely as of no historical value. If we 
have been successful in our treatment of this im- 
portant branch of our subject, however, it should 
be clear that, by the canons of a true historical and 

* Dean Stanley, in his Lectures on the Eastern Church, in 
noting the spread of Mohammedanism in Africa, concedes 
to it some admirable features which are lacking in Oriental 
Christianity. His frank treatment of this subject is very 
suggestive and instructive. 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 297 

critical exegesis, it is quite possible to separate the 
characteristics of the mythical Christ from the gen- 
uine features of the Man of Nazareth; and this, 
too, by the application of no arbitrary rule. Hav- 
ing recovered the picture of the historical Jesus 
from our investigation of the consenting testimony 
of the synoptical Gospels, and set over against it 
the remaining material of the Evangelical writers, 
the result proves the correctness of the method, 
almost with the certainty of mathematical demon- 
stration. 

On the one hand, we have Jesus, the Man, — a 
Hebrew of the Hebrews, — true son and successor 
of the prophets, finding his inspiration, his doc- 
trines, his apt illustrations, his intense moral con- 
victions, all latent in the ideas, the customs, sur- 
roundings, and even in the superstitions and prej- 
udices of his people. His doctrine, like Paul's, was, 
"to the Greeks, foolishness"; but it was by no 
means unfamiliar or incomprehensible to the peo- 
ple of Galilee and Judea. His aphorisms, quota- 
tions, and illustrations show familiarity with the 
Hebrew scriptures and with the current uncritical 
methods of expounding and interpreting them in 
the synagogues, but none whatever with the litera- 
ture and philosophy of Greece and Rome. The 
Jesus of the Triple Tradition is a simple, noble, 
manly personage, full of intense conviction and pro- 
phetic enthusiasm, who moves naturally and freely 
in his native Hebrew environment. The traces of 
the miraculous which still linger in his story are 
well-known superstitious belongings of his time and 
people. Jesus was conscience, humanity, compas- 



298 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

sion incarnate, but conscience, humanity, and 
compassion tinged by the habitual atmosphere of 
Hebrew life and thought. Without the current 
Jewish expectation of a coming Messiah, and of 
the kingdom of heaven soon to be established on 
the earth, the historical Jesus of the Triple Tradi- 
tion would have had no existence. That three or 
four Greek writers of a later century should invent 
such a character, living and moving in an atmos- 
phere so foreign to any other imaginable environ- 
ment, as some recent writers have suggested, — that, 
indeed, would be a miracle as difficult for the 
rigorous and vigorous apostles of iconoclastic rad- 
icalism to explain as are some of the legendary 
stories of the gospel narratives for their orthodox 
opponents. 

On the other hand, when we pass from the man 
Jesus of the Triple Tradition to the Christ of the 
excluded birth-legends and the wonderful fabric of 
mysticism and dogma found in the Fourth Gospel, wa 
pass out of the Hebrew environment into the region 
of Aryan and Egyptian thought. The Christian 
my thus finds its explanation in legends foreign and 
abhorrent to the Hebrew mind: in the similar 
myths which cluster about the story of Krishna in 
India, and which were reflected in the later tradi- 
tions of Buddhism ; in the like mythological con- 
ceptions of the Egyptian Osiris worship, and the 
current religions of Greece and Rome. Back of 
the?e, it rests upon a common substratum of solar 
mythology, which constituted so important an ele- 
ment in the religions of India, Persia, Greece, 
Rome, Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt. 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 299 

The mythical Element as related to the Progress 
of Christianity. 

To account for the marvellous progress of Chris- 
tianity among the Aryan peoples of Europe, some- 
thing more than the life and character of the his- 
torical Jesus is demanded by the rational investi- 
gator. That the mythical and philosophical accre- 
tions which gathered about his story in the gospel 
narratives helped to familiarize and popularize his 
teachings outside the boundaries of Judaism, there 
can scarcely be a doubt. This influence was greatly 
aided by the teaching of Paul, who in his own per- 
son combined Pharisaic Judaism with the results 
of Greek philosophical culture, and whose work 
was a preparation for the new Platonism of the 
Alexandrian schools, which drew into yet closer 
contact the alien faiths of Greece and Palestine. 
Finally, Paul's doctrine of Universalism severed 
Christianity from the ethnical narrowness of Ju- 
daism, and it fell as fruitful seed into a soil pre- 
pared by the political ferments succeeding the con- 
quests of Alexander and the Caesars, — into a world 
united as never before by the liberal and cosmopol- 
itan policy of the Roman Empire. 

Under the modifying influence of its mythical 
and dogmatic accretions, it is evident that the 
simple ethical teaching of Jesu3 was largely ob- 
scured and misinterpreted. There were three fac- 
tors, however, in the evolution of Christianity, to 
which its progress and ultimate triumph appear to 
be chiefly due, that are traceable directly to the 
thought of Jesus, and that offer an historical 
justification for the popular regard in which he is 



300 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

held as the founder of the new faith. These, taking 
them in the order of their development, were : 
first, that feature in the teaching of Jesus which 
based morality upon the inner motive rather than 
the outward act ; secondly, the natural ultimation 
and practical application of this principle through 
the socialistic communism of primitive Christian- 
ity,* and particularly in the wider principle of 
Pauline Universalism ; and, thirdly, the outcome 
and survival of this democratic and equalizing 
principle in the form of the church organization. 

The abrogation of caste and of social distinctions 
in the church organization was the surviving rem- 
nant of the earlier communism, which not even the 
triumph of the Roman hierarchy could wholly 
obscure, though it succeeded in transforming the 
democratic equality of the earlier communities into 
the subordinated equality of the "Church militant," 
—of soldiers marching under the command of an 
autocratic leader. The organization of the Church 
was possible only through the principle of Univer- 
salism introduced by Paul, but based ultimately 
upon the thought of Jesus. The separate commu- 
nities were welded together by the result of the 
dogmatic controversies, and the circumstances of 
the political situation, into a compact organization 
of workers, which gave Christianity a tremendous 
advantage in its conflict with heathenism. The 
ethnic religions, in their popular forms, were a 
matter of family interest rather than of organized, 

* More than a year after these words were written, we are 
gratified to find our judgment confirmed in the able and 
scholarly address of Rev. Dr Heber Newton on "The Relig- 
ious Aspect of Socialism." See Index of June 25, 1885. 



CIIRISTTANITY THE STATE RELIGION 301 

concerted public action. They fostered no univer- 
sal church. The state religion was usually quite 
different from the popular faith; and, while the 
schools of philosophy and secret and select associa- 
tions of the mystagogues interested the intelligent 
classes, they did not appsal to the sympathies of 
the common people. 

With this principle of organized Universalism in 
the primitive Christian faith, the tendency and 
policy of the Roman Empire coincided ; and the 
Church accordingly took form and being under the 
guiding influence of the State. "The first form 
which Christianity assumed," says Tiele, "as an 
established religion, was Roman. The Roman 
Catholic Church is simply the Roman universal 
empire modified and consecrated by Christian 
ideas. It left the old forms, for the most part, 
standing ; but it ennobled and elevated them by a 
new spirit. Its organization, and the efforts after 
unity which controlled all its development, were 
inherited from the Romans ; and it was by their 
means that it was enabled to become the teacher 
of the still rude populations of the north, to pre- 
serve rather than diffuse the treasures which it 
had received from the ancients and from Jesus." * 

Christianity and the Religion of the Future. 

Looking back over the history of these earliest 
Christian centuries, is it wonderful, then, that the 
new religion gained steadily in power, and pressed 
forward to its ultimate triumph? Nay. The won- 

*The History of Religion, by Prof. C. P. Tiele, of the 
University of Leyden. 



302 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

der would have been had the event proved other- 
wise. At every step, we behold the inevitable re- 
sults of easily discernible and wholly natural 
causes. Had the simple, unalloyed teaching of the 
Prophet of Nazareth prevailed throughout the em- 
pire, that indeed would have been a miracle. But 
Christianity triumphant, as we have seen, was far 
from being the religion of Jesus : it was a compro- 
mise with Pagan power and sacerdotalism, — a hy- 
brid product which the Nazarene would never have 
recognized as the child of his simple enthusiasm 
for righteousness, his devotion and self-abnegation, 
his suffering and agony, his poverty and supreme 
self-sacrifice. Imperial Rome was not the kingdom 
of righteousness whose coming he desired and 
prophesied, — no, nor any nation, people, or relig- 
ious communion which has succeeded it, owning 
or professing the name of Christian. His was a 
beautiful ideal, never to be completely realized, as 
he anticipated, by any earthly society ; but let us 
not doubt that this rejected stone will yet take its 
place in the temple of the Religion of the Future, — 
the true religion of humanity, — which shall be 
neither exclusively Christian nor Buddhist, nor 
Mohammedan nor Hindu, which shall be known 
by no sectarian designation. Into its fold shall be 
welcomed all sincere and earnest seekers for the 
truth; all who strive for its manifestation in a 
life of righteousness ; all who believe, in the lan- 
guage of one of its prophets, that "Truth is our 
only armor in all passages of life and death." Iti 
blessed ministry shall lead them, and lead all th< 
world at last, to a perfect recognition of the Broth 



CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 303 

erhood of Man ; and to that trustful acceptance 
of the universe, which, independent even of theistic 
dogma, stands to all reverent and thoughtful minds 
as the rational fulfilment of Jesus' doctrine of the 
Fatherhood op God 



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Rhys-Davids, Prof. — Buddha and Buddhism. 

Ritter, Dr. Heinrich.— History of Ancient Philosophy. 

Savage, Rev. Minot J. — The Morals of Evolution. Talks about 
Jesus. 

Schaff, Rev. Philip, D.D.— History of the Christian Church. 

Seeley, Prof. — Roman Imperialism. 

Spencer, Herbert. — Data of Ethics. 

Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, D.D., Dean of Westminster. — 
Christian Institutions. Lectures on the Eastern Church. 

Strauss, David Friedrich. — Life of Jesus. 

Supernatural Religion. 

Tacitus. 

Talmud. 

Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. 

Tielb, Prof. C. P., of the University of Leyden.— History of 
Religion. 



306 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Toy, Prof. Crawford Howbll. — Quotations in the New Tes- 
tament. 

Watson, Paul Barron.— Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. 

Wilder, Dr. Alexander. — Paul and Plato. (Essay.) 

ZbllbRj Dr. E., professor in the University at Heidelberg.— The 
Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics. 



INDEX. 



Abbot, Dr. Ezra, in defence of the Fourth Gospel, 78; on the 
Canonical Gospels, 85, note; on the early Gospels, 88, note; 
on the Peshito, 88. 

Abbott, Dr. Edwin A., on the relative age of the Gospels, 93. 

Abolitionists, 133. 

Abtalyon, Rabbi, 29. 

Acts of the Apostles, 26, 175, 186, 188, notes ; 205, 225. 

iEons, 220, 221, 227. 

^Esculapius, 151. 

Agape, 201, note ; 212, 255. 

Age of the Four Gospels, 81, et seq. ; 92. 

Ahriman, 14, 53, 77. 

Ahura-Mazda, 106. 

Akiba, Rabbi, 23. 

Alexander of Abonoteichus, 155, note. 

Alexander Severus, 154, 251. 

Alexander the Great, 15, 50, 53, 60, 65. 

Alexandrian influence on Christianity, 54, 287. 

Alexandrian School of Philosophy, 56; in relation to the Fourth 
Gospel, 169. 

Alleged Buddhistic origin of the Christian tradition, 159-161. 

Allen, Prof. Joseph Henry, on the term "Son of God," 94; on 
Paul and Jesus, 174, 193; on Paul's personality, 183; on 
Gnosticism, 219; on early doctrines, 261; on heathen monu- 
ments, 274. 

Ananias and Sapphira, 276, note. 

Antichrist, 189; the doctrine of, 231; identification of Nero 
with, 232. 

Antiochus Epiphanes, 231. 

Antoninus. (See " Marcus Aurelius.") 

Antoninus Pius, his Stoicism, 50; founds asylums, 51; protects the 
Christians, 241, and note. 

Apocalypse, 189, 206, 228, 231, 232. 

Apocrypha, 163, note; 293. 

Apocryphal Gospels, 71, note; 73, 79, 84, 101, 102, 164. 

Apocryphal New Testament, 81. 

Apollo, Birth Legend of, 147 ; in the catacombs, 272 ; an incarnation 
of the sun-god, 282 ; recognized by Constantine, 283. 

Apollonius of Tyana, an historical personage, 148; his biography, 
148-150; his philosophy, 149; life and labors, 150-153; his 
asceticism, 151; his alleged miracles, 151-153; his deifica- 



308 INDEX 

tion, 153-155; his religion and ethics, 155; coincidences with 

the Christian legend, 156-159; his recognition by Alexander 

Severus, 251. 
Apostolic age, The Church in, 204. 
Apostolic Fathers, Epistles of, 69, 80. 
Aramaic, the language of Palestine, 33 ; not the language of the 

Gospels, 73 ; words in the Second Gospel, 93. 
Aramaic version of the Scriptures, 23. 
Arian controversy, 286-289, and note. 
Aristobulus, 16. 
Arius, 288, 289, 294. 
Arnold, Matthew, on Paul, 195, 198, 200; on early Christianity, 257, 

note; on the catacombs, 273. 
Aryan birth legends, 147 ; as related to the gospel stories, 298. 
Aryan character of the il Oriental Christ," 171. 
Aryan origin of the Trinitarian dogma, 109. 
Aryan origin of the word " devil," 112. 
Asceticism, of the Essenes, 22 ; relation of Jesus to, 129 ; of Apollo- 

nius, 151 ; of the Montanists, 258. 
Asklepios, 44. 

Asmonean leaders in Judea, 15. 
Athanasius, 289. 
Athenagoras, 263. 
Attalus, the martyr, 246. 
Augustine, 60, 183, 291, 293. 
Augustus Cassar, 39, 48, 59, 219, 231. 
Aurelian, 152. 

Babylonian captivity, 18, 106. 

Babylonian elements in the Teutonic religion, 64. 

Babylonian origin of Hebrew demonism, 112. 

Bacchus, 282. 

Banus, the immerser, 27. 

Baptism, 21, 27, 104, 206-210. 

Bar-Cochba, 24, 239. 

Barnabas, Epistle of, 233. 

Batanea, 223, 224. 

Baur, Ferdinand Christian, on the relation of Jesus to Judaism, 139; 

on Apollonius of Tyana, 149, and note ; on Simon Magus, 225, 

and note. 
Beausobre on Simon Magus, 225. 
Bible, its claims to infallibility, 294. 
Bible of to-day, 176, note. 
Bibliography, 304. 

Birth stories, Unhistorical character of, 99, 145-147, 158, 159, 163, 164. 
Bishops, 215-217. 
Blandlna, the martyr, 246, 248. 
Brahmo-Somaj, 35, 171, and note ; 296. 
Britain under the Romans, 61. 
Buddha, left no written word, 69; parables of, 75, note ; a legend of, 

102 ; birth stories, 147 ; coincidences with Christ, 161, and note. 
Buddhaghosa's parables, 75, note. 
Buddhism, not related to Essenism, 22 ; its doctrine of Nirvana, 1 10 ; 

unjustly depreciated, 142, note; its esoteric doctrine, 151, 267; 

its relation to Christianity, 159-161 ; its rapid growth, 295. 

Cabala, 23, 194. 

Caesar, 124 (see Julius and Augustus C). 



INDEX 309 

Caligula, 51, 218, 219. 

Canon, 291-295. 

Canonical Gospels, 70, et seq. ; 81, 292. 

Canon of Muraton, 88. # 

Captivity to Roman period, 14. 

Caracalla, 154. 

Carlyle, 243. 

Carthage, religion and history, 59 ; Council of, 293. 

Cassiodorus, 154, and note. 

Castor and Pollux, 282. 

Catacombs, Testimony of, 268-274. 

Cathedra, 211, 217. 

Catholic Church, its relation to Paul ; 190; its contest with the 

Donatists, 284, 285, and note ; its indebtedness to Constantine, 

290; its claims to infallibility, 294; its doctrine of equality, 

300; its inheritance from Paganism, 217, 301. 
Catiline, 42. 
Cato, 42. 

Causes of the persecutions, 254, et seq. ; 259. 
Celsus, 148, 155, note. 
Celt. (See ' ' Keltic Communities. ") 
Chadwick, Rbv. John W. Preface, 176, note. 
Chaldean demonism, 15, 112. 
Chaldean origin of baptism, 206, and note. 
Chaldean origin of Hebrew myths, 169, note. 
Chaldea's gift to Israel, 14. 
Christianity of Paul, 174. 
Christianity thb State Religion, 266. 
Christmas, The origin of, 46, 283. 
Chromatius, 277. 

Church in the Apostolic Age, 204. 
Cicero, 42. 

Circumcellions, 285, st seq. 
Claudius, 51, 91, 219,228. 
Clement of Alexandria, 88, 291, 292. 
Clement of Rome, in relation to the Christian Canon, 82 ; his alleged 

allusion to Paul, 190, and note; his superstition, 233; nis 

Epistle to the Corinthians, 82, 236. 
Clementine Homilies, uncertain date of, 82; on Simon Magus, 

224-228; Dean Milman on, 225. 
Cleopatra, 53. 
Clerical orders, 214-217. 

Codex, Sinaiticus, 292 ; Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, Ephraemi, 293. 
Commerce and civilization, 48. 
Communism, of Jesus, 40, 124; as recognized by Paul, 201; of the 

early Church, 276; Heber Newton on, 276, note; survivals in 

Catholicism, 300. 
Comte, Auguste, on Paul, 174. 
Conflict with Orientalism, 219-222. 
Constantine, 277; his character and attitude, 2805 his eclecticism, 

282 ; his recognition of Paganism, 282-284 ; his relation to the 

Arian controversy, 289; his influence as peace-maker, 290. 
Copts. (See " Kopts.") 
Crassus, 41, 42. 
Crescentius, 247. 
Criobolium, 261. 
Crispus, 281. 



310 INDEX 

Cross, its uses in religious symbolism before Christ, 46, 
Cybele, 282. 

Da?.os, 148, 149, 150, 152, 153, nsie. 

David, Jesus not the Son of, 102, 114- 

Davidson, Dr. Samuel, on the gospel canon, 81; on Irenaeos, 
Clement, and Tertullian, 291. 

Deacons, 215. 216. 

Decay of the religious sentiment, 46. 

Decius, 231, 252, 254. 

Demetrius, 152. 

Demiourgos, 57, 221. 

Demoniacal possession, 75, 112, 145, 153, 233. 

Demosthenes, 184. 

Development of Christian doctrine, 260. 

Devil, in the New Testament, 14; in the story of the temptation, 
10;: the belief of Jesus in, no, 112; Aryan origin of, 112. 

Diana Dictynna, 153. 

Differentiation of Christianity from Paganism, 274. 

Diocletian, 252, 254. 

Doctrines, of the Sadducees, 18, et seq.; of the Pharisees, 19, etseq.; 
of the Essenes, 21 ; of Jesus, 106, et seq.; of Paul, 192, et seq.; 
of the Gnostics, 220 ; of the Ebionites, 223 ; of the early Chris- 
tians, 260 ; of the Circumceilions, 2S6. 

Dodwell on the persecutions, 253. 

Domitian, 152, 237. 

Donarlsts, 2S4. 

Druids, Religion of the, 62. 

Dualism, of the Fourth Gospel, 77; of Paul, 197, 199, 202, 227; of 
the Gnostics, 220 ; of the Ebionites, 222. 

Dyaus-pitar, 65. 

Earliest references to the four Gospels, 87. 

Ear": 7 Christian literature, 69. 

Early Councils, 291. 

Ebionites, 72, note ; 101, 128, 147, 222-228. 

Ecclesia, 214, and note ; 220. 

Edom, 17. 

Education among the Jews, 34. 

Egypt, under the Greeks and Romans, 52 ; conquered by Alexander, 
53 ; under the Ptolemies, 53 ; the religion of, 67 ; Jesus' alleged 
journey into, 100; journey of Apollomus into, 151, 15s. 
: :alus, 251. 

Elders, 215. 

Eleusinian mysteries, 43, 155, 168. 

Elijah, 153, 285. 

El Mahdi, 232. 

Emanation, 23, 220, 227. 

Enoch, 153. 

Enoch, The Book of, 67. 

Epictetus, 52, 278. 

Epicureans, 229. 

Epicurus, 256. 

Epiphanius, on the Alogoi, 88 ; on the Ebionites, 223, 227. 

Essenes, doctrines of, 20-22; baptism of, 21, 27, 207; relation of 
Jesus to, 104, 126, 130; asceticism of, 223. 

Eucharist, a Mithraic ceremony, 45 ; origin of, 212-214 ; a ceremony 



INDEX 311 

of the Ebionites, 223 ; popular misunderstanding of, 257; Justin 

Martyr on, 262 ; described by Iren»us, 267. 
Euhemensm, 46. 
Euhemeros, 47, 48. 
Eunapius, 154. 
Euthydemus, 150. 
Euxenus, 151. 

Everett, Prof. Carroll C, on the new morality, 138, note. 
Ewald, on the Synoptical Gospels, 74; on the term " Son of God," 

287, note. 
Extent of the persecutions, 252. 
Ezra, the scribe, 19. 

Fatalism of the Essenes, 21. 

Fausta, 281. 

Faustina, 51. 

Felicitas, 251, note. 

F^avius Clemens, 237. 

Fourth Gospel, its relations to Philo, 58 ; its divergence from the 
Synoptics, 74-77, 115; its artificial theology, 77-79 ; its miracles, 
165-170; its story of the resurrection, 178, and note; its doc- 
trine of the Logos, 194; its acceptance as authoritative scripture, 
206, 287. 

Fria, or Fngga, 65. 

Froude, James Anthony, on Lucian, 155, note. 

Future life, 21, 63, 65, 66, no. 

Galhrius, 253. 

Galilee, 24-26. 

Gamaliel, 126, 182. 

Gaulonitis, Judah of, 24, 25. 

Gaul under the Romans, 61. 

Gehenna, no. 

Gerizim, Mount, 25. 

Gibbon, on the period of the " five good emperors," 51, 235 ; ea 
the martyrs, 253, 270. 

Giscala, John of, 26. 

Gnosticism, as related to Paul, 195; its doctrines, 219-222; Oriental 
origin of, 220; its conception of the fall of man, 221; its sup- 
posed relation to Simon Magus, 227; contemporary with the 
catacombs, 269. 

Gnostics, their doctrine of the Logos, 59; their indebtedness to 
Egypt, 53, 220; to Paul, 191; to India, 220; to Mithracism, 46, 
220; their views about martyrdom, 240; immoralities among, 257. 

Goethe, on the New Testament allegories, 164. 

Golden Rule, taught by Confucius, 30, note; by Hillel, 30; by 
Jesus, 132, 137; Prof. Newman on, 137. 

Gospel of the Hebrews, 72, note; 78, 80, 89, 224. 

Gospels, origin of the four, 72; tendency and purpose of, 95, 96. 
(See also "Apocryphal Gospels," "Canonical Gospels," 
" Synoptical Gospels," and "Canon.") 

Greek, the official language in Palestine, 33, 34 5 the language of the 
Jews in Egypt, 54; not the language of Jesus, 69, 103, 115; 
words in the Old Testament, 34, note; the language of the 
Gospels, 73. 

Grotius, 253. 

Growing influence of the Church at Rome, 236. 



312 



INDEX 



Growth of the hierarchy, 217. 
Growth of the Messianic idea, 27. 
Growth of miraculous legends, 161. 
Guizot, on the Germans, 64. 

Hadrian, a Stoic, 50, 235 ; his attitude toward Christianity, 237-239, 

and note. 
Hedge, Rev. Dr. Frederic H., on Marcus Aurelius, 241, 243; on 

the aims of the early Church, 275 ; on Constantine, 283. 
Hegisippus, 85, 189, 190. 
Helena, of Simon Magus, 225. 
Helena, the Empress, 283. 
Hellenism, 106, 226, 250. 
Herakles, The myth of, 165. 
Hennas, The baptism of, 277. 
Hermas, The Shepherd of, 292. 
Herod, 17, 99, 100, 125. 
Herodians, 76. 

Hierocles on Apollonius, 154, and note. 
Hillel, Rabbi, 29, et seq. ; 67. 
Hippo, Council of, 293. 

Horos, identified with Iakchos, 44, 67; birth myth of, 147. 
Hyrcanus, John, 16, 17. 

Iakchos, The myth of, 44, 67. 

Idumea, 17. 

Ignatius of Antioch, Epistles of, 83 ; on the Lord's day, 211 ; on 

martyrdom, 240^ 
Immaculate conception, 164. 
Immersion, a rite of the Essenes, 21 ; a Jewish custom, 27 ; adopted 

by John the Baptist, 104; the earliest form of Christian baptism, 

207, 208, and note; 209, 210. 
Immortality, taught by the Essenes, 21; by the Druids, 63; not 

explicitly taught by Jesus, no. 
Importations from Paganism, 66, 217. 
Incarnation, 44, 45, 48, 49, 109, 166, 167, 233, 260-262. 
India :_ What can it teach us ? 161, note. 
Inquisition, 230, 253. 
Introduction, 9. 
Irenaeus, the founder of the canon, 87 ; announces the Christian 

dogmas, 267 ; his character, 291 ; his canon, 292. 
Isis, 44, 67, 251. 
Izdubar, The myth of, 165. 

Jacobs, Joseph, on the relation of Stoicism to Christianity, 250. 

James, the brother of Jesus, 71, note; 90, 101. 

Janus, The temple of, 39. 

Jehovah. (See ' " Yahweh. • ') 

Jerome, 71, note. 

Jerusalem, its destruction by Titus, 27, 236. 

Jeshobeb, Rabbi, 126. 

Jesus, the Judean fanatic, 27. 

Jesus of Nazareth, left no written word, 69,; sources of his history, 
70 ; his birth and parentage, 99-102 ; his early life, 102 ; rela- 
tions to John the Baptist, 103 ; his temptation, 104, 160 ; his 
doctrine of the heavenly Father, 107 ; of prayer, 107, 108 ; his 
Unitarianism, 109 ; his doctrine of the future life, 109-1 12 ; of 



INDEX 313 

demoniacal influences, 112; his Messianic beliefs, 113; his doc- 
trine of the kingdom of heaven, 1 18-123; his parables, 122; his 
doctrine Of non-resistance, 123 ; his communism, 124 ; his ex- 
altation of poverty, 125 ; his pessimism, 128, 159 ; his views of 
marriage, 129-13 1; of education and labor, 131; of slavery, 
131; his ethical precepts, 132-134 ; his doctrine of forgiveness, 
134; his ethics criticised, 135-138; his religion as related to 
Judaism, 138-140; his historical verity, 70, 140; the myth and 
the man, 296. 

Jewish colony in Rome, 41. 

Jewish conception of God, 106. 

Jewish monasticism, 20. 

Job, 112, 159. 

John Hyrcanus, 16, 17. 

John of Giscala, 26. 

John, the Apostle, not the author of the Fourth Gospel, 77; proba- 
bly wrote the Apocalypse, 84, 189; his alleged martyrdom, 237. 

John the Baptist, sketched by Josephus, 27; his relations to 
Jesus, 103. 

Joseph, the father of Jesus, 101. 

Josephus, Flavius, on John the Baptist, 27, 91 ; on the languages 
of Palestine, 33 ; on Jewish education, 34 ; possibly alludes to 
Jesus, 90; the spurious passage, 91. 

Joshua, 285. 

Judseo-Christianity, 222-228. 

Judah of Gaulonitis, 24, 25. 

Judaism, Persian influence on, 14, 28; Hillel on, 30; in Egypt, 54; 
its relation to Christianity, 138-140 ; its intolerance, 255. 

Judas Maccabaeus, 15. 

Judea, Characteristics of, 24, 25. 

Julia Domna, 148. 

Julian, the Emperor, 279, and note. 

Julius Caesar, protects the Jews, 16 ; his conquests, 41 ; his account 
of the Druids, 63. 

Jupiter, 65, 66. 

Justin Martyr, on the Gospels, 82, 84 ; his probable ignorance of the 
Fourth Gospel, 85, note; on the Sabbath, 211; his contests 
with Marcion and Trypho, 247; on the eucharist, 262; on 
demoniacal influences, 263 ; his death, 247. 

Kabala, 23. 

Kan aim, 23, 124. 

Kant, 112. 

Keeler on the age of the Gospels, 93. 

Keltic communities, 61. 

Keshub Chunder Sen, 171, and note. 

Kopts, 54. 

Koran on riches, 127. 

Krishna, 100, 147, 298. 

Kronos, The myth of, 47. 

Kuenen, Prof. A., on Philo, 22, note; on the Messianic prophecy, 

101, note. 
Kuhn-Aten, 251. 

Lalita Vistara, 161, note. 

Languages of Palestine, 33. 

Latin version of the New Testament, 88. 



314 INDEX 

Lazarus, 75, 162, and note ; 167. 

Legend of the resurrection, 44, 1 76-181. 

Liberal and conservative Pharisees, 29. 

Licinius, 281. 

Lightfoot, Bishop, on Jewish superstitions, 146. 

Lindsay, Prof., on immoralities among the early Christians, 256. 

Logia of Jesus, 73, 85. 

Logos, in Philo, 57, 58; in the Fourth Gospel, 76, 77, 88, 96, 166, 

167 ; as related to Paul, 194 ; to Gnosticism, 220 ; to the Arian 

controversy, 287, 288. 
Lord's day, 210-212. 
Lucan, 153, and note. 
Lucian, 155, note. 
Lustration, 208. 

MaccabjEan struggle for freedom, 15. 

Maccabseus, Judas, 15. 

Maeragenes, 148. 

Mahdi, 232. 

Mahomet, 184. (See also "Mohammedanism.") 

Mammon, 128. 

Manu, Institutes of, 48. 

Manuscripts of the New Testament, 292, 293. 

Marcion, his Gospel, 73, note; 93, 292; his relation to Paul, 191, 
219; his contest with Justin Martyr, 247; his canon, 291. 

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 235; his relation to the Christians, 241, 
244-249; Dr. Hedge on, 241; his character and religion, 242- 
244; Matthew Arnold on, 244; Niebuhr on, 244; Renan on, 
244, 248; Watson on, 247, 249; his pure religion, 263 ; motives 
of his attitude toward Christianity, 279. 

Martyr Period, 235. 

Martyrdom of Stephen, 185. 

Martyrs, The earliest, 236; Flavius Clemens, 237; Pliny's relation 
to, 238; Ignatius, 240; the relation of Marcus Aurelius to, 244- 
249; Polycarp, 245 ; Blandina, 246, 248 ; at Lyons and Vienne, 
246; under Diocletian and Decius, 251 ; total number of, 253. 

Mary, the mother of Jesus, tor. 

Maturus, the martyr, 246. 

Maxentius, 279. 

Maximin, 279. 

Maximus of ./Ega2, 148. 

Memoirs of the Apostles, 84, 120. 

Memra, 23, 67. 

Messiah, Judah of Gaulonitis as, 24; Jewish belief in, 28, 106; the 
First 'Gospel on, 95; Jesus as, 114, 174; forgives sin, 135; doc- 
trine of, assures historical verity of Jesus, 298. 

Messianic idea, Growth of, 27: the Persian, 28, 66; relation of 
Jesus to, 113 5 a beautiful dream, 116. (See also "Messiah.") 

Milman, Dean, on early Christianity, 185; on Trajan and Hadrian, 
239, and note; on Ignatius of Antioch, 240; on Marcus Aure- 
lius, 244 ; on Polycarp, 245 ; on the persecutions, 252 ; on Chris- 
tianity and civilization, 285 ; on the early councils, 294. 

Miracles, in the gospel stories, 144 : in the story of Apollonius, 152, 
156-158; of cure, 145; of the Fourth Gospel, 165-170; growth 
of miraculous legends, 161. 

Mithra, or Mithras, 45, 168, 262, 282. 

Mithracism, 45, 262. 



INDEX 315 

Mohammedanism, 21, 295, 296, note. 

Monasticism of the Essenes, 20. 

Montanism, 236, 245, 258-260. 

Moses, 19, 24, 100, 285. 

Motley on the persecutions in the Netherlands, 253. 

Mozoomdar, Protap Chunder, on education, 35; on the Oriental 

Christ, 171 ; his attitude in prayer, 272, note. 
Miiller, Prof. Max, on the relations of Christianity to Buddhism, 

161, and note. 
Mysticism, of the Kabala, 22 ; of the Eleusinian cultus, 44 ; of 

Philo, 56, 57 ; of the Fourth Gospel, 75, 298; of Paul, 194, 199; 

of Gnosticism, 220-222 ; of the Neo-Platonists, 287 ; freedom 

of Stoicism from, 51 ; freedom of Jesus from, 134, 171, 222. 
Myth and Miracle in the Gospel Stories, 144. 
Mythical element as related to the progress of Christianity, 299. 

Natural evolution of Christianity, 295. 

Nature worship of the Teutons, 64. 

Nazarenes, ioi, 190, 211. 

Nazarites, 130, 151. 

Neo^Platonism, doctrines of, 56; of the Fourth Gospel, 169; its 
influence on Christianity, 249, 250 ; as related to the Logos doc- 
trine, 287 ; to Paul, 299. 

Nero, opposes Stoicism, 51 ; persecutes the Christians, 192, 228-230, 
236, 237, 257; identified with Antichrist, 231, 232. 

Nerva, 50, 235, 248. 

Newman, Prof. Francis W., on the ethics of Jesus, 137. 

Newton, Rev. Dr. R. Heber, on the early Christian communism, 
276, note ; on the religious aspect of socialism, 300, note. 

Nica^a, Council of, 289, 294. 

Niebuhr, on Marcus Aurelius, 244 ; on the persecutions, 253. 

Nirvana, no, 117. 

Odin, 65. 

Oldenburg, Prof., on the Lalita Vistara, 161, note. 

Onesimus, 132, 201. 

Onkelos, Targum of, 23, note. 

Optatus, 285. 

Oral law, 33. 

Orcus, 230. 

Oriental Christ, 170. 

Oriental Church, 217, 284, and note. 

Oriental influences, on Essenism, 22 ; in the Roman Empire, 45 ; 
in connection with Paul's doctrines, 197 ; in relation to Chris- 
tianity, 219-222. 

Origen, refers to Apollonius, 148 ; on the number^ of the martyrs, 
249 ; on salvation by blood, 261 ; on future punishment, 268. 

Origin of the priesthood, 214-217. 

Ormuzd, 77. (See also " Ahura-Mazda.") 

Orpheus, 251, 272. 

Osiris, 251, 282, 298. 

Oswald, Dr. Felix, on the relation of Christianity to Buddhism, 142, 
note 1 159-161, and notes. 

Palestine in the Roman Period, 13. 

Papias, in relation to the gospel canon, 81, 84, 85, 86; his quota- 
tion from the Memoirs of the Apostles, 120; does not mention 
Paul, 190. 



316 INDEX 

Parables, 75, and note; 122. 

Parthian revolt, 17. 

Parties in the early Church, 188-191. 

Pasht, 55. 

Patristic literature, 70, 235, 256; on early beliefs, 267. 

Paul, the earliest writer in the New Testament, 69, 70 ; reports no 
miracles of Jesus, 163 ; the Christianity of, 174; Epistles of, 69, 
I0 3> 175, and note; his doctrine of the resurrection, 181; his 
early life, 182 ; his advocacy of Judaism, 184; his conversion, 
185; his missionary labors, 187; his relation to the Apostles, 
187-191; conclusion of his labors, 191 ; his doctrines, 192-200; 
hisethics, 197; his dualism, 197, 199,202; the type of Protest- 
antism, 200; his universalism, 202, 242,299-301; described as 
Simon Magus, 225-228 ; bis death, 192 ; his teaching misinter- 
preted, 256. 

Pelasgic origin of the Virgin and child, 44. 

Pentecost, 121, note. 

Perpetua, Vivia, 251, note. 

Persephone, 44, 67. 

Persia, her gifts to Israel, 14, 22 ; her angelology, 224. 

Persian origin of Jewish beliefs, 22. 

Peshito, 88. 

Pessimism of Jesus, 128, 159. 

Peter, 66, 81, 95, 228, 236, 276, note. 

Pharisees, their origin, 19; their observances, 19; denounced by 
John the Baptist, 104; relation of Jesus to, 130; denounced by 
Jesus, 133 ; rebuked for " seeking a sign," 146, note. 

Philo Judseus, 56 ; on the Therapeutae, 22, note ; his dualism, 57 ; 
his Logos doctrine, 58, 288 ; his relation to Justin Martyr, 85, 
note; his use of the term "Son of God," 94, note; his rela- 
tion to the Fourth Gospel, 169 ; object of his philosophy, 205. 

Philostratus, 148-150, 153, note ; 158. 

Phoenicia, 59, 60, and notes. 

Plato, influence of his philosophy on Christian doctrine, 42, 158; 
his relation to Philo, 56, 57 ; his influence on Paul, 183 ; bis 
doctrine of complex marriage, 257. 

Pleroma, 221. 

Pliny the Younger, on the Christians, 91 ; in relation to the perse- 
V cutions, 238, 239. 

Pluto, 230. 

Polycarp, Epistle of, 83 ; his alleged allusion to Paul, 190, and 
note ; his martyrdom, 241, 245. 

Pompey the Great, 16, 40, 41, 42. 

Pontifex Maximus, 217, 218, 281. 

Pothinus, the martyr, 246. 

Prayer, Jesus' doctrine of, 107, 108; Oriental conception of, 271, 
272, and note. 

Priesthood, the origin of, 214-217. 

Prophecy, revival of, 26. 

Proselytes to Judaism, 184. 

Pythagoras, 149, 151, and nate; 158. 

Religion of the future, 301. 

Religion under the Roman Empire, 42. 

Renan, Ernest, on the four Gospels, 72; on the age of the Gospels, 
93; on miracles, 146; on the resurrection, 179; on Nero, 229, 
230, 231, 232 ; on Marcus Aurelius, 242, 244, 248. 



INDEX 317 

Resurrection, of Iakchos, 44; of Jesus, 70, 176-181 ; of Lazarus, 75, 

162, and note ; Paul's doctrine of, 181. 
Revival of Paganism, 48. 
Revival of prophecy, 26. 

Rhys-Davids, Prof., on the Lalita Vistara, 161, note. 
Ritter, Dr. Heinrich, on Apollonius of Tyana, 148, 149, is«, 

note; 155. 
Roman Empire, Society and religion in, 39, et seq. ; before the 

Caesars, 40; under the Caesars, 41; defines the boundaries of 

Christianity, 50; its attitude toward Christianity, 235-260; its 

relation to the Catholic Church, 290, 301. 
Roman tolerance, 42, 254. 
Rosicrucians, 45. 

Russia, Current superstitions in, 48, 2571 284; persecutes the Jews, 
„ 254. 
Rusticus, 247. 

Sabbath, 211, 282. 

Sabean, 206, note. 

Sacred drama of Eleusis. (See " Eleusinian Mysteries.") 

Sadducees, the priestly class, 18 ; their observances, 18, et seq. ; not 

mentioned in the Fourth Gospel, 76; denounced by John the 

Baptist, 104. 
Sadoq, 19, note. 
Sakya-Muni, 22. 
Samson, The myth of, 165. 
Sanctus, the martyr, 246. 
Sargon, 100. 
Satan, his original character, 14, 112; his relation to Ahriman, 

14; to Set, 53, 112; in the Fourth Gospel, 77; in the story 

of the temptation, 105; identified with the devil, 112; 

renounced by Christian converts, 209; in the doctrines of the 

Ebionites, 222. 
Saturnalia, 46, 99. 
Saul. (See "Paul.") 
Scaulus, 16. 

Schaff, Dr. Philip, on the early Christians, 257 » on the early coun- 
cils, 294. 
Scipio, 42, 241. 
Scribes, not a separate sect, 19; not mentioned in the Fourth 

Gospel, 76 ; denounced by Jesus, 133. 
Sects in Palestine, 17. 
Seleucidae, 17. 

Sen, Keshub Chunder, 171, and note. 
Septuagint, 55, 96. 
Set, or Seth, 53, 112. 
Severus, Alexander, 154, 251. 
Severus, Septimius, 148, 251, note. 
Shamas, 165. 
Shammai, Rabbi, 30-32. 
Shammaya, Rabbi, 29. 
Siddartha, 160. 
Sidon, 60. 

Sidonius Apollinaris, 154, and note. 
Simon Magus, 224-228. 
Slavery, in the Roman Empire, 40; opinions on,— of the Fathers, 

40, note; of Jesus, 131 ; of Paul, 201; relation of Christianity 

to, 246, 277, and note. 



318 INDEX 

Smith, Prof. Robertson, on the Gospels, 73. 

Social Aspects of the Religion of Jesus, 118. 

Society and Religion in the Roman Empire, 39. 

Sokrates, 43. 

Solar mythology, 147, i6r, 166, 167-170, 282, 298. 

Son of God, in Philo's writings, 57, 58, 94, note ; not in the Teach- 
ing of the Twelve Apostles, 72, note ; in the Second Gospel, 92, 
94; as applied to Jesus, 109, 114, 147, note; as used by Paul, 
198; identified with the Logos, 57, 287; Ewald, on the term, 
287, note ; in the Athanasian Creed, 289. 

Son of Man, in Daniel, 67; as applied to Jesus, 68, 76, 140; a title 
of the Messiah, 135. 

Sons of God, in Philo, 58; in Job, 112; in the New Testament, 
122, 123. 

Sosiosch, 28. 

Sources of Information, 69. 

Spain under the Romans, 61. 

Spartacus, 40. 

Spencer, Herbert, on ethics, 112, 138, note ; 242. 

Spinoza, 242. 

Spiritual symbolism, 170. 

Stanley, Dean, on baptism, 209, note; on clerical orders, 214, 215, 
and note ; 216; on pagan customs, 218, and note ; on the cata- 
combs, 270, and note ; on Mohammedanism, 296, note. 

Stephen's martyrdom, 185. 

Stoic philosophy, of Semitic origin, 50, and note; 250; teaches the 
rights of man, 51; encourages public charities, 51; a prepara- 
tion for Christianity, 249-251. 

Stoics, The reign of the, 52, note. 

Suetonius, 91. 

Sulla, 39. 

Synagogue, 19, 33, 34, note; 35, 54, 102, 297 ; the prototype of the 
Church, 214, 215. 

Synoptical Gospels, 37, 74, et seq.; 91, 98, 121, 144, 145, 157, 160, 
164, 170, 171, 180, 194, 195, 297. 

Syria conquered by Pompey, 39. 

Syriac Version of the New Testament, 88. 

Syro-Chaldaic language, 33, 103, 224. 

Tacitus, 91, and note; 233. 

Talmud, compiled from the oral law, 33 ; on education, 34 ; parables 

in, 75, note ; on riches, 126, 127, and notes. 
Targum of Onkelos, 23, note. 
Targums, 23, note. 
Taurobolium, 260. 

Taylor, Father, on the goodness of Jesus, 142. 
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 30, note; 70, note; 72, note; 83, 

89, 208, note. 
Tertullian, on Mithracism, 45 ; on the gospel canon, 88, 291, 292 ; 

on Marcus Aurelius, 248; on unpardonable sins, 259; Matthew 

Arnold on, 273 ; Prof. Davidson on, 291. 
Teutonic peoples, The religion of, 63. 
Theological Aspects of the Religion of Jesus, 98. 
Therapeutas, 22, and note. 
Theudas, 26. 
Thor, 65. 
Thorah, 19, 23, 138. 



INDEX 319 

Tiberius, 219. 

Tiele, Prof. C. P., on Nero, 229; on the Roman Church, 301. 

Titus, 27, 219, 236. 

Tiu, 65. 

Torquemada, 253. 

Toy, Prof. Crawford H., on the Targums, 23, note ; on quota- 
tions in the New Testament, 36. 

Trajan, a Stoic, 50, 235; his attitude toward the Christians, 237-239, 
and note ; founds public charities, 51, 248; incident in his reign, 
277. 

Tredwell, Daniel M., on Apollonius of Tyana, 150, note. 

Triple Tradition, 37, 78, 98, 102, 144, 157, 159, i6j, 170, 171, 297, 298. 

Trypho, 247, 262. 

Tyche, 282. 

Tyre, 60. 

Unitarianism of Jesus, 109. 

Universalism, Paul's doctrine of, 92, 202, 211, 237, 242, 264, 299, 300. 

Uzziel, Rabbi Jonathan ben, 67. 

Vatican, 66. 

Vedas, 266. 

Vishnu, 100. 

Vivia Perpetua, 251, note. 

Waite, on the age of the Gospels, 93. 

Walhalla, 65. 

Watson, Paul Barron, on Marcus Aurelius, 244, 247, 249. 

Yahwbh, 14, 15, andnote; 20, 28, 37, 106, 107, 112, 114, 119; be- 
comes the Gnostic demiourgos, 221. 

Zaccheus, 271. 

Zadok, 19, note. 

Zealots, their doctrines, 23 ; Jesus not one, 124. 

Zeller, Dr. E., on Stoicism, 50, note ; 250. 

Zeno, the Stoic, 50. 

Zeus, identified with Tiu, 65 ; Nero called " Zeus," 229. 

Zoroaster, his religion a monotheism, 66 ; left no written word, 69. 

Zoroastrian influence on Judaism, 22 ; on^he Egyptian religion, 53 ; 

on Gnosticism, 220. 
Zoroastrianism, its dualism, 57 ; its ceremonial ablutions, 206, note ; 

its sacrificial rites, 208, note ; its priestly origin, 267. 



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